Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41505999›Full record

ArticleComputer methods and programs in biomedicine2026

Liver cancer segmentator: Metadata-guided confidence scoring for reliable segmentation of colorectal liver metastases in CT.

Mohammad Hamghalam, Jacob J Peoples, Kaitlyn S M Kobayashi, Grace Park, Erin Kwak, E Claire Bunker, Natalie Gangai, Mithat Gonen, Yun Shin Chun, HyunSeon Christine Kang and 2 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Computer methods and programs in biomedicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

12 authors.

Mohammad HamghalamSchool of Computing, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada; Department of Electrical Engineering, Qa.C., Islamic Azad University, Qazvin, Iran.
Jacob J PeoplesDepartment of Radiology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
Kaitlyn S M KobayashiDepartment of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
Grace ParkSchool of Computing, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
Erin KwakSchool of Computing, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
E Claire BunkerDepartment of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
Natalie GangaiDepartment of Radiology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
Mithat GonenDepartment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
Yun Shin ChunDepartment of Surgical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA.
HyunSeon Christine KangDepartment of Abdominal Imaging, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA.
Richard K G DoDepartment of Radiology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
Amber L SimpsonSchool of Computing, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada; Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada. Electronic address: amber.simpson@queensu.ca.

Funding

X-RAY CRYSTALLOGRAPHYP30CA008748 · NCI · SLOAN-KETTERING INSTITUTE FOR CANCER RES · PI Nicholas D Socci · 1985 to 2026
$347.4M
Development and Validation of Prognostic Radiomic Markers of Response and Recurrence for Patients with Colorectal Liver MetastasesR01CA233888 · NCI · SLOAN-KETTERING INST CAN RESEARCH · PI CHUN, YUN SHIN, DO, RICHARD KINH GIAN · 2019 to 2023
$3.7M
NCI NIH HHS P30 CA008748NCI NIH HHS R01 CA233888
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND

objectiveThis study introduces the liver cancer segmentator (LCS), a deep learning model designed for automatic and robust segmentation of liver parenchyma and tumors in abdominal contrast-enhanced computed tomography images from patients with colorectal liver metastases. The primary aim was to enhance confidence scoring for more reliable clinical segmentation assessment.

methodsIn this retrospective study, 446 abdominal contrast-enhanced computed tomography examinations were collected; 355 (80%) were used for training and 91 for testing. Data originated from routine clinical cases at two institutions, representing diverse disease stages and treatment settings. A state-of-the-art neural network segmentation framework was trained on these cases, with performance evaluated using the Dice score and the normalized surface distance. An iterative training process, supported by an integrated annotation workflow, was employed to refine the training set. The final model was applied to the 91 test examinations to assess the impact of tumor volume and slice thickness on confidence scoring. Reliability was quantified through pairwise Dice score for failure detection and the area under the risk coverage curve.

resultsThe LCS achieved a Dice score of 0.9707 (95% CI: 0.9663-0.9751) for liver parenchyma and 0.7695 (95% CI: 0.7166-0.8224) for tumors. Normalized surface distance values at a 3-millimeter tolerance were 0.9605 (95% CI: 0.9539-0.9671) for parenchyma and 0.8412 (95% CI: 0.7928-0.8896) for tumors. Confidence scoring analysis demonstrated strong correlations between tumor volume, slice thickness, and segmentation reliability, reducing the area under the risk coverage curve from 16.7 to 10.3.

conclusionsThe LCS achieved high segmentation accuracy in patients with colorectal liver metastases. Incorporating tumor volume and slice thickness into the confidence scoring process improved failure detection, enhanced reliability, and provided valuable insights for refining clinical deployment of automated segmentation algorithms.

Indexed as

Colorectal NeoplasmsLiver NeoplasmsTomography, X-Ray ComputedAlgorithmsContrast MediaDeep LearningFemaleHumansMaleNeural Networks, ComputerRadiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-AssistedReproducibility of ResultsRetrospective StudiesContrast MediaColorectal liver metastases (CRLM)Confidence-aware segmentationContrast-enhanced CT (CECT)Liver tumor segmentationNnU-Net

Identifiers

PMID41505999
PMCPMC13340072

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.