Background/Objectives: Multiple instance learning (MIL) is widely used for automated classification of epithelial ovarian cancer subtypes from whole slide images (WSIs), but the relative contributions of feature extractor, aggregation strategy, and classification framework (flat vs. hierarchical) choices remain unclear under severe class imbalance. Methods: We evaluated 36 configurations on 510 WSIs from the UBC-OCEAN dataset using stratified five-fold cross-validation, comparing three pathology foundation models (Phikon-v2, CTransPath, UNI), six aggregators (mean/max pooling, ABMIL, CLAM-SB, DSMIL, DTP-TransMIL), and two classification strategies. Pathologist-annotated WSIs assessed attention map interpretability. Results: Feature extractor selection contributed substantially more variance than aggregator choice. Cascade balanced accuracy ranged from 0.538 (Phikon-v2) to 0.925 (UNI); CTransPath (~32 K pretraining WSIs) reached 0.870, exceeding Phikon-v2 (~58 K WSIs) and approaching UNI (~100 K+ WSIs), indicating that pretraining objective and architecture contribute as substantially as scale. The hierarchical cascade consistently improved high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC) recall across all six evaluated configurations (+0.073 to +0.530), detecting 206 of 217 cases (0.949) with UNI max pooling. Quantitative spatial alignment analysis confirmed that both stronger feature extractors—CTransPath and UNI—generated significantly more spatially structured attention distributions than Phikon-v2 (paired Wilcoxon, p = 0.008 and p = 0.032, respectively). Conclusions: Feature extractor choice contributed more variance than aggregator selection, with the largest gap between Phikon-v2 and stronger extractors. Hierarchical cascades consistently improved HGSC recall across all configurations.
(1) Background: The misuse of transformation technology using medical images is a critical problem that can endanger patients’ lives, and detecting manipulation via a deep learning model is essential to address issues of manipulated medical images that may arise in the healthcare field. (2) Methods: The dataset was divided into a real fundus dataset and a manipulated dataset. The fundus image manipulation detection model uses a deep learning model based on a Convolution Neural Network (CNN) structure that applies a concatenate operation for fast computation speed and reduced loss of input image weights. (3) Results: For real data, the model achieved an average sensitivity of 0.98, precision of 1.00, F1-score of 0.99, and AUC of 0.988. For manipulated data, the model recorded sensitivity of 1.00, precision of 0.84, F1-score of 0.92, and AUC of 0.988. Comparatively, five ophthalmologists achieved lower average scores on manipulated data: sensitivity of 0.71, precision of 0.61, F1-score of 0.65, and AUC of 0.822. (4) Conclusions: This study presents the possibility of addressing and preventing problems caused by manipulated medical images in the healthcare field. The proposed approach for detecting manipulated fundus images through a deep learning model demonstrates higher performance than that of ophthalmologists, making it an effective method.
(1) Background: The misuse of transformation technology using medical images is a critical problem that can endanger patients’ lives, and detecting manipulation via a deep learning model is essential to address issues of manipulated medical images that may arise in the healthcare field. (2) Methods: The dataset was divided into a real fundus dataset and a manipulated dataset. The fundus image manipulation detection model uses a deep learning model based on a Convolution Neural Network (CNN) structure that applies a concatenate operation for fast computation speed and reduced loss of input image weights. (3) Results: According to the fundus image manipulation detection model’s results, for the real data, the four lesions had average sensitivity = 0.98, precision = 1.00, and F1-score = 0.99. For the manipulated data, the average sensitivity = 1.00, precision = 0.84, and F1-score = 0.92. The average Area Under the Curve (AUC) for the four lesions was 0.988, which is relatively high. Subsequently, to confirm whether the fundus image manipulation detection model can operate effectively in actual clinical environments, the model’s outcomes were compared with those of five ophthalmologists. For real data, the four lesions showed an average sensitivity = 0.93, precision = 0.96, and F1-score = 0.95, whereas for manipulated data, the average sensitivity = 0.71, precision = 0.61, and F1-score = 0.65. The four lesions also had an average AUC = 0.822, which was lower than the results of the fundus image manipulation detection model across all metrics. (4) Conclusions: This study presents the possibility of addressing and preventing problems caused by manipulated medical images in the healthcare field. The proposed approach for detecting manipulated fundus images through a deep learning model demonstrates higher performance than that of ophthalmologists, making it an effective method.