Generative Style Transfer for MRI Image Segmentation: A Case of Glioma Segmentation in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract: In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the utilization of lower-quality Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technology raises questions about the applicability of machine learning methods for clinical tasks. This study aims to provide a robust deep learning-based brain tumor segmentation (BraTS) method tailored for the SSA population using a threefold approach. Firstly, the impact of domain shift from the SSA training data on model efficacy was examined, revealing no significant effect. Secondly, a comparative analysis of 3D and 2D full-resolution models using the nnU-Net framework indicates similar performance of both the models trained for 300 epochs achieving a five-fold cross-validation score of 0.93. Lastly, addressing the performance gap observed in SSA validation as opposed to the relatively larger BraTS glioma (GLI) validation set, two strategies are proposed: fine-tuning SSA cases using the GLI+SSA best-pretrained 2D fullres model at 300 epochs, and introducing a novel neural style transfer-based data augmentation technique for the SSA cases. This investigation underscores the potential of enhancing brain tumor prediction within SSA's unique healthcare landscape.