Convergence of various computer-aided systems for breast tumor diagnosis: a comparative insight

Breast Cancer, with an expected 42,780 deaths in the US alone in 2024, is one of the most prevalent types of cancer. The death toll due to breast cancer would be very high if it were to be totaled up globally. Early detection of breast cancer is the only way to decrease the mortality caused by it. In order to diagnose breast cancer, even the most competent and qualified pathologists and radiologists have to examine hundreds of high-resolution images, which is a massive burden on them. Compared to the number of cases, very few experts are available to manage this burden. Additionally, as humans are more prone to mistakes, the likelihood of finding false positive cases is also high. Numerous AI techniques, including machine learning and deep learning, are ideally suited to address these issues, inspiring many researchers to introduce novel computer-aided detection systems.

In this study, we have comprehensively reviewed pre-existing literature aimed at developing computer-aided systems based on using machine learning, deep learning, and vision transformers to identify and classify breast cancer. We have discussed numerous imaging modalities for detecting breast cancer, along with the widely used data pre-processing approaches, machine learning and deep learning models, as well as ensemble learning methods suitable for the task. Popular datasets and their sources are also listed for future referencing. Finally, we have identified a few gaps and addressed potential future research directions with an intent of aiding researchers select approaches tailored to case-specific needs.