Cell comparative learning: A cervical cytopathology whole slide image classification method using normal and abnormal cells

Automated cervical cancer screening through computer-assisted diagnosis has shown considerable potential to improve screening accessibility and reduce associated costs and errors. However, classification performance on whole slide images (WSIs) remains suboptimal due to patient-specific variations. To improve the precision of the screening, pathologists not only analyze the characteristics of suspected abnormal cells, but also compare them with normal cells. Motivated by this practice, we propose a novel cervical cell comparative learning method that leverages pathologist knowledge to learn the differences between normal and suspected abnormal cells within the same WSI. Our method employs two pre-trained YOLOX models to detect suspected abnormal and normal cells in a given WSI. A self-supervised model then extracts features for the detected cells. Subsequently, a tailored Transformer encoder fuses the cell features to obtain WSI instance embeddings. Finally, attention-based multi-instance learning is applied to achieve classification. The experimental results show an AUC of 0.9319 for our proposed method. Moreover, the method achieved professional pathologist-level performance, indicating its potential for clinical applications.