A Comparative Analysis of Transfer Learning-based Techniques for the Classification of Melanocytic Nevi

Abstract: Skin cancer is a fatal manifestation of cancer. Unrepaired deoxyribo-nucleic acid (DNA) in skin cells, causes genetic defects in the skin and leads to skin cancer. To deal with lethal mortality rates coupled with skyrocketing costs of medical treatment, early diagnosis is mandatory. To tackle these challenges, researchers have developed a variety of rapid detection tools for skin cancer. Lesion-specific criteria are utilized to distinguish benign skin cancer from malignant melanoma. In this study, a comparative analysis has been performed on five Transfer Learning-based techniques that have the potential to be leveraged for the classification of melanocytic nevi. These techniques are based on deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) that have been pre-trained on thousands of open-source images and are used for day-to-day classification tasks in many instances.