Balazs Harangi

Annotated Pap cell images and smear slices for cell classification

AbstractMachine learning-based systems have become instrumental in augmenting global efforts to combat cervical cancer. A burgeoning area of research focuses on leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance the cervical screening process, primarily through the exhaustive examination of Pap smears, traditionally reliant on the meticulous and labor-intensive analysis conducted by specialized experts. Despite the existence of some comprehensive and readily accessible datasets, the field is presently constrained by the limited volume of publicly available images and smears. As a remedy, our work unveils APACC (Annotated PAp cell images and smear slices for Cell Classification), a comprehensive dataset designed to bridge this gap. The APACC dataset features a remarkable array of images crucial for advancing research in this field. It comprises 103,675 annotated cell images, carefully extracted from 107 whole smears, which are further divided into 21,371 sub-regions for a more refined analysis. This dataset includes a vast number of cell images from conventional Pap smears and their specific locations on each smear, offering a valuable resource for in-depth investigation and study.

Pixel-wise segmentation of cells in digitized Pap smear images

AbstractA simple and cheap way to recognize cervical cancer is using light microscopic analysis of Pap smear images. Training artificial intelligence-based systems becomes possible in this domain, e.g., to follow the European recommendation to screen negative smears to reduce false negative cases. The first step for such a process is segmenting the cells. A large and manually segmented dataset is required for this task, which can be used to train deep learning-based solutions. We describe a corresponding dataset with accurate manual segmentations for the enclosed cells. Altogether, the APACS23 (Annotated PAp smear images for Cell Segmentation 2023) dataset contains about 37 000 manually segmented cells and is separated into dedicated training and test parts, which could be used for an official benchmark of scientific investigations or a grand challenge.