DataVXAdvanced SciencePaper
journal article·2025-11Open access

CRCFound: A Colorectal Cancer CT Image Foundation Model Based on Self‐Supervised Learning

Jing Yang, Du Cai, Junwei Liu, Zhenfeng Zhuang, Yibin Zhao, Feng‐ao Wang, Chenghang Li, Chuling Hu, Baowen Gai, Yiping Chen, Yixue Li, Liansheng Wang, Feng Gao, Xiaojian Wu

Advanced Science· Volume 12· Issue 41
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Source abstract

Abstract

Abstract Accurate risk stratification is crucial for determining the optimal treatment plan for patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). However, existing deep learning models perform poorly in the preoperative diagnosis of CRC and exhibit limited generalizability, primarily due to insufficient annotated data. To address these issues, CRCFound, a self‐supervised learning‐based CT image foundation model for CRC is proposed. After pretraining on 5137 unlabeled CRC CT images, CRCFound can learn universal feature representations and provide efficient and reliable adaptability for various clinical applications. Comprehensive benchmark tests are conducted on six different diagnostic tasks and two prognosis tasks to validate the performance of the pretrained model. Experimental results demonstrate that CRCFound can easily transfer to most CRC tasks and exhibit outstanding performance and generalization ability. Overall, CRCFound can solve the problem of insufficient annotated data and perform well in a wide range of downstream tasks of CRC, making it a promising solution for accurate diagnosis and personalized treatment of CRC patients.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Radiomics and Machine Learning in Medical Imaging · AI in cancer detection · Colorectal Cancer Screening and Detection

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

National Institute for Data Science in Health and Medicine Xiamen University Xiamen 361005 China

Department of General Surgery (Department of Colorectal Surgery) The Sixth Affiliated Hospital Sun Yat‐sen University Guangzhou 510655 China

Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Colorectal and Pelvic Floor Diseases The Sixth Affiliated Hospital Sun Yat‐sen University Guangzhou 510655 China

Biomedical Innovation Center The Sixth Affiliated Hospital Sun Yat‐sen University Guangzhou 510655 China

Guangzhou National Laboratory Guangzhou 510655 China

Department of Computer Science at the School of Informatics Xiamen University Xiamen 361005 China

Department of Colorectal Surgery Ningbo Medical Center Lihuili Hospital (Affiliated Lihuili Hospital of Ningbo University) Ningbo 315000 China

Key Laboratory of Systems Health Science of Zhejiang Province School of Life Science Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Hangzhou 310024 China

Artificial Intelligence Thrust The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Guangzhou 510655 China

School of Geospatial Engineering and Science Sun Yat‐sen University Zhuhai 510655 China

Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health Chinese Academy of Sciences Shanghai 200030 China

GZMU‐GIBH Joint School of Life Sciences The Guangdong‐Hong Kong‐Macau Joint Laboratory for Cell Fate Regulation and Diseases Guangzhou Medical University Guangzhou 511436 China

School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai 200240 China

Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Shanghai 200433 China

Funding

Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China · National Natural Science Foundation of China · Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation of Guangdong Province

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