Data diversity is critical to success when training deep learning models. Medical imaging data sets are often imbalanced as pathologic findings are generally rare, which introduces significant challenges when training deep learning models. In this work, we propose a method to generate synthetic abnormal MRI images with brain tumors by training a generative adversarial network using two publicly available data sets of brain MRI. We demonstrate two unique benefits that the synthetic images provide. First, we illustrate improved performance on tumor segmentation by leveraging the synthetic images as a form of data augmentation. Second, we demonstrate the value of generative models as an anonymization tool, achieving comparable tumor segmentation results when trained on the synthetic data versus when trained on real subject data. Together, these results offer a potential solution to two of the largest challenges facing machine learning in medical imaging, namely the small incidence of pathological findings, and the restrictions around sharing of patient data.

本研究中，我们提出了一种使用生成性对抗网络通过在两个公共数据集上训练生成合成MRI图像的方法，以产生具有脑肿瘤的合成异常MRI图像。结果表明这些合成图像提供两个独特的好处，第一是作为数据增强的一种方式，可以提高肿瘤分割的性能，第二，证明了生成模型作为匿名化工具的价值，通过使用合成数据，实现了与实际患者数据训练具有可比性的肿瘤分割结果。这些结果为解决医学成像中机器学习面临的两个最大挑战，即病理发现的小发生率和患者数据共享的限制，提供了潜在的解决方案。

使用生成对抗网络进行医学图像合成的数据增强和匿名化