SkinGuard 1: A Robust Multi-Class Deep Learning-Based Skin Cancer Detection Using a ResNet50-Based Model
Keywords:
Cancer, Cancer diagnosis, CNN, ResNet-50, Skin, SkinGuide 1Abstract
Skin cancer is an increasingly prevalent health concern, and early detection is essential for effective treatment and improved patient outcomes. Traditional diagnosis largely depends on dermatologists’ visual interpretation of skin lesions, which can be subjective and may result in variations in diagnosis or delays in treatment. This study presents an automated skin cancer detection system based on ResNet-50, a deep convolutional neural network architecture designed for image classification. The model was trained and evaluated using a dataset obtained from the International Skin Imaging Collaboration (ISIC). To improve accessibility and practical usability, the trained model was integrated into a user-friendly web application called SkinGuard, which enables users to upload skin lesion images and receive real-time predictions. Experimental results demonstrate a multi-class accuracy of 88%, precision of 91%, recall of 87%, and F1-score of 89%. These findings indicate that the proposed system has potential to support dermatologists in early skin cancer detection.
References
E. R. Parker “The influence of climate change on skin cancer incidence–a review of the evidence,” International Journal of Women's Dermatology, vol. 7, no. 1, Jan. 2021.
M. Arnold et al., “Global burden of cutaneous melanoma in 2020 and projections to 2040,” JAMA Dermatology, vol. 158, no. 5, Mar. 2022.
H. Bhatt, V. Shah, K. Shah, R. Shah, and M. Shah, “State-of-the-art machine learning techniques for melanoma skin cancer detection and classification: a comprehensive review,” Intelligent Medicine, vol. 3, no. 3, Aug. 2023.
H. D. Heibel, L. Hooey, and C. J. Cockerell, “A review of noninvasive techniques for skin cancer detection in dermatology,” American Journal of Clinical Dermatology, vol. 21, pp. 513–524, May 2020.
K. Das et al., “Machine learning and its application in skin cancer,” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 18, no. 24, Dec. 2021.
A. Murugan, S. A. Nair, A. A. Preethi, and K. P. Kumar, “Diagnosis of skin cancer using machine learning techniques,” Microprocessors and Microsystems, vol. 81, Mar. 2021.
T. Mazhar et al., “The role of machine learning and deep learning approaches for the detection of skin cancer,” Healthcare, vol. 11, no. 3, Feb. 2023.
O. T. Jones et al., “Artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms for early detection of skin cancer in community and primary care settings: a systematic review,” The Lancet Digital Health, vol. 4, no. 6, Jun. 2022.
M. Awai et al., "Machine learning algorithm for detection of deadliest forms of skin cancer," International Journal of Advanced Research in Science, Communication and Technology (IJARSCT), vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 764–768, Apr. 2026.
M. Goyal, T. Knackstedt, S. Yan, and S. Hassanpour, “Artificial intelligence-based image classification methods for diagnosis of skin cancer: Challenges and opportunities,” Computers in Biology and Medicine, vol. 127, Dec. 2020.
A. G. Pacheco and R. A. Krohling, “The impact of patient clinical information on automated skin cancer detection,” Computers in Biology and Medicine, vol. 116, Jan. 2020.
L. N. Guo, M. S. Lee, B. Kassamali, C. Mita, and V. E. Nambudiri, “Bias in, bias out: underreporting and underrepresentation of diverse skin types in machine learning research for skin cancer detection—a scoping review,” Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, vol. 87, no. 1, pp. 157–159, Jul. 2022.
S. B. Mukadam and H. Y. Patil, “Skin cancer classification framework using enhanced super resolution generative adversarial network and custom convolutional neural network,” Applied Sciences, vol. 13, no. 2, Jan. 2023.
N. Thakur and A. Jaiswal, “Comparative analysis of machine learning and deep learning algorithms for skin cancer detection,” Machine Intelligence and Data Science Applications, Aug. 2022, pp. 409-418.
A. Shah et al., “A comprehensive study on skin cancer detection using artificial neural network (ANN) and convolutional neural network (CNN),” Clinical eHealth, vol. 6, pp. 76–84, Dec. 2023.
A. S. Qureshi and T. Roos, “Transfer Learning with Ensembles of Deep Neural Networks for Skin Cancer Detection in Imbalanced Data Sets,” Neural Processing Letters, vol. 55, pp. 4461–4479, 2023.
K. Okokpujie, A. K. Agamah, A. Orimogunje, I. P. Adaora, O. O. Omolara, S. A. Daramola, and M. E. Awomoyi, “Classification model for infectious lung diseases using convolutional neural networks on web and mobile applications,” Indonesian Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 410–424, Jul. 2025
American Academy of Dermatology Association, “Skin cancer: Symptoms, diagnosis, and causes,” American Academy of Dermatology Association, 2022.
N. C. F. Codella et al., "Deep learning ensembles for melanoma recognition in dermoscopy images," in IBM Journal of Research and Development, vol. 61, no. 4/5, 2017.
A. Esteva et al., “Dermatologist-level classification of skin cancer with deep neural networks,” Nature, vol. 542, pp. 115–118, Jan. 2017.
American Cancer Society, “Key statistics for melanoma skin cancer,” American Cancer Society, Jan. 2023.
R. L. Siegel, K. D. Miller, N. S. Wagle, and A. Jemal, “Cancer statistics, 2023,” CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, vol. 73, no. 1, pp. 17–48, Jan. 2023.
S. Han et al., Classifying social determinants of health from unstructured electronic health records using deep learning-based natural language processing,” Journal of Biomedical Informatics, vol. 127, Mar. 2022.
T. Bagratuni, “JQ1 inhibits tumour growth in combination with cisplatin and suppresses JAK/STAT signalling pathway in ovarian cancer” European Journal of Cancer, vol. 126, pp. 125–135, Feb. 2020.
N. Dey, V. Rajinikanth, H. Lin, and F. Shi, “A study on the bat algorithm technique to evaluate the skin melanoma images,” in Applications of Bat Algorithm and Its Variants. Singapore: Springer, 2020, pp. 45–60.
J. A. Achuka, M. A. Aweda, M. R. Usikalu, and C. A. Aborisade, “Cancer risks from chest radiography of young adults: A pilot study at a health facility in South West Nigeria,” Data in Brief, vol. 19, pp. 1250–1256, Aug. 2018.
I. Isewon, E. Alagbe, and J. Oyelade, “Optimizing machine learning performance for medical imaging analyses in low-resource environments: The prospects of CNN-based Feature Extractors,” F1000Research, 2025.