A hierarchical classifier for multiclass prostate histopathology image gleason grading

Abstract

Automated classification of prostate histopathology images includes the identification of multiple classes, such as benign and cancerous (grades 3 & 4). To address the multiclass classification problem in prostate histopathology images, breakdown approaches are utilized, such as one-versus-one (OVO) and one-versus-all (Ovall). In these approaches, the multiclass problem is decomposed into numerous binary subtasks, which are separately addressed. However, OVALL introduces an artificial class imbalance, which degrades the classification performance, while in the case of OVO, the correlation between different classes not regarded as a multiclass problem is broken into multiple independent binary problems. This paper proposes a new multiclass approach called multi-level (hierarchical) learning architecture (MLA). It addresses the binary classification tasks within the framework of a hierarchical strategy. It does so by accounting for the interaction between several classes and the domain knowledge. The proposed approach relies on the 'divide- and-conquer' principle by allocating each binary task into two separate subtasks; strong and weak, based on the power of the samples in each binary task. Conversely, the strong samples include more information about the considered task, which motivates the production of the final prediction. Experimental results on prostate histopathological images illustrated that the MLA significantly outperforms the Ovall and OVO approaches when applied to the ensemble framework. The results also confirmed the high efficiency of the ensemble framework with the MLA scheme in dealing with the multiclass classification problem.