Machine learning versus clinicians for detection and classification of oral mucosal lesions

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11110%2F25%3A10500431" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11110/25:10500431 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=UjeJ2t1GGD" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=UjeJ2t1GGD</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jdent.2025.105992" target="_blank" >10.1016/j.jdent.2025.105992</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Machine learning versus clinicians for detection and classification of oral mucosal lesions

Original language description

Objectives: The detection and classification of oral mucosal lesions is a challenging task due to high heterogeneity and overlap in clinical appearance. Nevertheless, differentiating benign from potentially malignant lesions is essential for appropriate management. This study evaluated whether a deep learning model trained to discriminate 11 classes of oral mucosal lesions could exceed the performance of general dentists. Methods: 4079 intraoral photographs of benign, potentially malignant and malignant oral lesions were labeled using bounding boxes and classified into 11 classes. The data were split 80:20 for training (n = 3031) and validation (n = 766), keeping an independent test set (n = 282). The YOLOv8 computer vision model was implemented for image classification and object detection. Model performance was evaluated on the test set which was also assessed by six general dentists and three specialists in oral surgery. Evaluation metrics included sensitivity, specificity, F1-score, precision, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC), and average precision (AP) at multiple thresholds of intersection over union. Results: In terms of classification, the highest F1-score (0.80) and AUROC (0.96) were observed for human papillomavirus (HPV)-related lesions, whereas the lowest F1-score (0.43) and AUROC (0.78) were obtained for keratosis. In terms of object detection, the best results were achieved for HPV-related lesions (AP25 = 0.82) and proliferative verrucous leukoplakia (AP25 = 0.80; AP50 = 0.76), while the lowest values were noted for leukoplakia (AP25 = 0.36; AP50 = 0.20). Overall, the model performed comparable to specialists (p = 0.93) and significantly better than general dentists (p &lt; 0.01). Conclusion: The developed model performed as well as specialists in oral surgery, highlighting its potential as a valuable tool for oral lesion assessment. Clinical significance: By providing performance comparable to oral surgeons and superior to general dentists, the developed multi-class model could support the clinical evaluation of oral lesions, potentially enabling earlier diagnosis of potentially malignant disorders, enhancing patient management and improving patient prognosis.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

30208 - Dentistry, oral surgery and medicine

Project

—

Continuities

V - Vyzkumna aktivita podporovana z jinych verejnych zdroju

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Journal of Dentistry

ISSN

0300-5712

e-ISSN

1879-176X

Volume of the periodical

161

Issue of the periodical within the volume

October

Country of publishing house

GB - UNITED KINGDOM

Number of pages

10

Pages from-to

105992

UT code for WoS article

001545008200001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-105011718399