Deep learning models for gastric signet ring cell carcinoma classification in whole slide images

Signet ring cell carcinoma (SRCC) of the stomach is a rare type of cancer with a slowly rising incidence. It tends to be more difficult to detect by pathologists mainly due to its cellular morphology and diffuse invasion manner, and it has poor prognosis when detected at an advanced stage. Computational pathology tools that can assist pathologists in detecting SRCC would be of a massive benefit. In this paper, we trained deep learning models using transfer learning, fully-supervised learning, and weakly-supervised learning to predict SRCC in Whole Slide Images (WSIs) using a training set of 1,765 WSIs. We evaluated the models on four different test sets of about 500 images each. The best model achieved a Receiver Operator Curve (ROC) area under the curve (AUC) of at least 0.99 on all four test sets, setting a top baseline performance for SRCC WSI classification.