GRU-Net: Gaussian Attention Aided Dense Skip Connection Based MultiResUNet for Breast Histopathology Image Segmentation

TL;DR

This paper introduces GRU-Net, a novel deep learning model that enhances breast histopathology image segmentation by integrating Gaussian attention and dense skip connections, leading to improved accuracy in complex feature analysis.

Contribution

The paper proposes a modified MultiResU-Net with Gaussian distribution-based attention and controlled dense residual skip connections for better histopathology image segmentation.

Findings

Achieves superior segmentation accuracy on TNBC and MonuSeg datasets.

Effectively incorporates prior spatial knowledge via Gaussian attention.

Outperforms existing state-of-the-art methods.

Abstract

Breast cancer is a major global health concern. Pathologists face challenges in analyzing complex features from pathological images, which is a time-consuming and labor-intensive task. Therefore, efficient computer-based diagnostic tools are needed for early detection and treatment planning. This paper presents a modified version of MultiResU-Net for histopathology image segmentation, which is selected as the backbone for its ability to analyze and segment complex features at multiple scales and ensure effective feature flow via skip connections. The modified version also utilizes the Gaussian distribution-based Attention Module (GdAM) to incorporate histopathology-relevant text information in a Gaussian distribution. The sampled features from the Gaussian text feature-guided distribution highlight specific spatial regions based on prior knowledge. Finally, using the Controlled Dense Residual Block (CDRB) on skip connections of MultiResU-Net, the information is transferred from the encoder layers to the decoder layers in a controlled manner using a scaling parameter derived from the extracted spatial features. We validate our approach on two diverse breast cancer histopathology image datasets: TNBC and MonuSeg, demonstrating superior segmentation performance compared to state-of-the-art methods. The code for our proposed model is available on https://github.com/AyushRoy2001/GRU-Net.