An explainable and federated deep learning framework for skin cancer diagnosis.

Skin cancer (SC) is the most prominent form of cancer in humans, with over 1 million new cases reported worldwide each year. Early identification of SC plays a crucial role in effective treatment. However, protecting patient data privacy is a major concern in medical research. Therefore, this study...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Shuvo Biswas, Sajeeb Saha, Muhammad Shahin Uddin, Rafid Mostafiz
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2025-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0324393
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850096536953815040
author Shuvo Biswas
Sajeeb Saha
Muhammad Shahin Uddin
Rafid Mostafiz
author_facet Shuvo Biswas
Sajeeb Saha
Muhammad Shahin Uddin
Rafid Mostafiz
author_sort Shuvo Biswas
collection DOAJ
description Skin cancer (SC) is the most prominent form of cancer in humans, with over 1 million new cases reported worldwide each year. Early identification of SC plays a crucial role in effective treatment. However, protecting patient data privacy is a major concern in medical research. Therefore, this study presents a smart framework for classifying SC leveraging deep learning (DL), federated learning (FL) and explainable AI (XAI). We tested the presented framework on two well-known datasets, ISBI2016 and ISBI2017. The data was first preprocessed by several techniques: resizing, normalization, balancing, and augmentation. Six advanced DL algorithms-VGG16, Xception, DenseNet169, InceptionV3, MobileViT, and InceptionResNetV2-were applied for classification tasks. Among these, the DenseNet169 algorithm obtained the highest accuracy of 83.3% in ISBI2016 and 92.67% in ISBI2017. All models were then tested in an FL platform to maintain data privacy. In the FL platform, the VGG16 algorithm showed the best results, with 92.08% accuracy on ISBI2016 and 94% on ISBI2017. To ensure model interpretability, an XAI-based algorithm named Local Interpretable Model-Agnostic Explanations (LIME) was used to explain the predictions of the proposed framework. We believe the proposed framework offers a dependable tool for SC diagnosis while protecting sensitive medical data.
format Article
id doaj-art-157581da47d84d29ae5b1dfca87171fb
institution DOAJ
issn 1932-6203
language English
publishDate 2025-01-01
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
record_format Article
series PLoS ONE
spelling doaj-art-157581da47d84d29ae5b1dfca87171fb2025-08-20T02:41:13ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032025-01-01207e032439310.1371/journal.pone.0324393An explainable and federated deep learning framework for skin cancer diagnosis.Shuvo BiswasSajeeb SahaMuhammad Shahin UddinRafid MostafizSkin cancer (SC) is the most prominent form of cancer in humans, with over 1 million new cases reported worldwide each year. Early identification of SC plays a crucial role in effective treatment. However, protecting patient data privacy is a major concern in medical research. Therefore, this study presents a smart framework for classifying SC leveraging deep learning (DL), federated learning (FL) and explainable AI (XAI). We tested the presented framework on two well-known datasets, ISBI2016 and ISBI2017. The data was first preprocessed by several techniques: resizing, normalization, balancing, and augmentation. Six advanced DL algorithms-VGG16, Xception, DenseNet169, InceptionV3, MobileViT, and InceptionResNetV2-were applied for classification tasks. Among these, the DenseNet169 algorithm obtained the highest accuracy of 83.3% in ISBI2016 and 92.67% in ISBI2017. All models were then tested in an FL platform to maintain data privacy. In the FL platform, the VGG16 algorithm showed the best results, with 92.08% accuracy on ISBI2016 and 94% on ISBI2017. To ensure model interpretability, an XAI-based algorithm named Local Interpretable Model-Agnostic Explanations (LIME) was used to explain the predictions of the proposed framework. We believe the proposed framework offers a dependable tool for SC diagnosis while protecting sensitive medical data.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0324393
spellingShingle Shuvo Biswas
Sajeeb Saha
Muhammad Shahin Uddin
Rafid Mostafiz
An explainable and federated deep learning framework for skin cancer diagnosis.
PLoS ONE
title An explainable and federated deep learning framework for skin cancer diagnosis.
title_full An explainable and federated deep learning framework for skin cancer diagnosis.
title_fullStr An explainable and federated deep learning framework for skin cancer diagnosis.
title_full_unstemmed An explainable and federated deep learning framework for skin cancer diagnosis.
title_short An explainable and federated deep learning framework for skin cancer diagnosis.
title_sort explainable and federated deep learning framework for skin cancer diagnosis
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0324393
work_keys_str_mv AT shuvobiswas anexplainableandfederateddeeplearningframeworkforskincancerdiagnosis
AT sajeebsaha anexplainableandfederateddeeplearningframeworkforskincancerdiagnosis
AT muhammadshahinuddin anexplainableandfederateddeeplearningframeworkforskincancerdiagnosis
AT rafidmostafiz anexplainableandfederateddeeplearningframeworkforskincancerdiagnosis
AT shuvobiswas explainableandfederateddeeplearningframeworkforskincancerdiagnosis
AT sajeebsaha explainableandfederateddeeplearningframeworkforskincancerdiagnosis
AT muhammadshahinuddin explainableandfederateddeeplearningframeworkforskincancerdiagnosis
AT rafidmostafiz explainableandfederateddeeplearningframeworkforskincancerdiagnosis