Given the increasing prevalence of lung cancer worldwide, an auxiliary diagnostic method is needed alongside the microscopic examination of biopsy samples, which is dependent on the skills and experience of pathologists.
NNs were benchmarked with classical machine learning CML models. In conclusion, NNs can be potentially used as a computational tool in lung cancer diagnosis based on infrared spectroscopy of lung tissues. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Lung cancer is considered the leading cause of death due to cancer worldwide [ 1 ] and has been the biggest cancer killer among men globally, and for women in countries such as North America, East Asia, Northern Europe, Australia, and New Zealand [ 2 ]. The initial evaluation of patients suspected of lung cancer starts with history taking and physical examination complemented with complete blood count and chest radiography [ 3 , 4 ].
A negative result from the chest radiography, however, is not definitive as the location and size of the tumor, state of metastasis, and type of lung cancer must be checked as well [ 3 , 5 ]. All patients who are eligible for treatment with the intention of curing the disease must be offered with computed tomography CT [ 4 , 6 ], a positron emission tomography PET scan if necessary, and then a diagnostic evaluation shall be made [ 3 ].
CT scans must be done prior to any invasive procedures as it provides knowledge regarding anatomical changes which increase the diagnostic yield of investigation [ 4 ]. However, this process is still known to provide false-positive results, leading to overdiagnosis [ 7 ], while also exposing the patients to low doses of radiation [ 7 , 8 ]. Combinations of other testing are also employed. Magnetic resonance imaging MRI , bronchoscopy, and histopathologic examinations are done as needed for diagnosis [ 9 ].
