KongNet: A Multi-headed Deep Learning Model for Detection and Classification of Nuclei in Histopathology Images

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Lv, Jiaqi, Nasir, Esha Sadia, Xu, Kesi, Jahanifar, Mostafa, Chohan, Brinder Singh, Elhaminia, Behnaz, Raza, Shan E Ahmed
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Lv, Jiaqi
Nasir, Esha Sadia
Xu, Kesi
Jahanifar, Mostafa
Chohan, Brinder Singh
Elhaminia, Behnaz
Raza, Shan E Ahmed
author_facet Lv, Jiaqi
Nasir, Esha Sadia
Xu, Kesi
Jahanifar, Mostafa
Chohan, Brinder Singh
Elhaminia, Behnaz
Raza, Shan E Ahmed
contents Accurate detection and classification of nuclei in histopathology images are critical for diagnostic and research applications. We present KongNet, a multi-headed deep learning architecture featuring a shared encoder and parallel, cell-type-specialised decoders. Through multi-task learning, each decoder jointly predicts nuclei centroids, segmentation masks, and contours, aided by Spatial and Channel Squeeze-and-Excitation (SCSE) attention modules and a composite loss function. We validate KongNet in three Grand Challenges. The proposed model achieved first place on track 1 and second place on track 2 during the MONKEY Challenge. Its lightweight variant (KongNet-Det) secured first place in the 2025 MIDOG Challenge. KongNet pre-trained on the MONKEY dataset and fine-tuned on the PUMA dataset ranked among the top three in the PUMA Challenge without further optimisation. Furthermore, KongNet established state-of-the-art performance on the publicly available PanNuke and CoNIC datasets. Our results demonstrate that the specialised multi-decoder design is highly effective for nuclei detection and classification across diverse tissue and stain types. The pre-trained model weights along with the inference code have been publicly released to support future research.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_23559
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle KongNet: A Multi-headed Deep Learning Model for Detection and Classification of Nuclei in Histopathology Images
Lv, Jiaqi
Nasir, Esha Sadia
Xu, Kesi
Jahanifar, Mostafa
Chohan, Brinder Singh
Elhaminia, Behnaz
Raza, Shan E Ahmed
Image and Video Processing
Accurate detection and classification of nuclei in histopathology images are critical for diagnostic and research applications. We present KongNet, a multi-headed deep learning architecture featuring a shared encoder and parallel, cell-type-specialised decoders. Through multi-task learning, each decoder jointly predicts nuclei centroids, segmentation masks, and contours, aided by Spatial and Channel Squeeze-and-Excitation (SCSE) attention modules and a composite loss function. We validate KongNet in three Grand Challenges. The proposed model achieved first place on track 1 and second place on track 2 during the MONKEY Challenge. Its lightweight variant (KongNet-Det) secured first place in the 2025 MIDOG Challenge. KongNet pre-trained on the MONKEY dataset and fine-tuned on the PUMA dataset ranked among the top three in the PUMA Challenge without further optimisation. Furthermore, KongNet established state-of-the-art performance on the publicly available PanNuke and CoNIC datasets. Our results demonstrate that the specialised multi-decoder design is highly effective for nuclei detection and classification across diverse tissue and stain types. The pre-trained model weights along with the inference code have been publicly released to support future research.
title KongNet: A Multi-headed Deep Learning Model for Detection and Classification of Nuclei in Histopathology Images
topic Image and Video Processing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.23559