Impact Factor (2025): 6.9
DOI Prefix: 10.47001/IRJIET
Vol 10 No 5 (2026): Volume 10, Issue 5, May 2026 | Pages: 496-504
International Research Journal of Innovations in Engineering and Technology
OPEN ACCESS | Research Article | Published Date: 26-05-2026
Oral cancer is a life-threatening disease where early detection is critical for effective treatment and improved patient survival rates. Traditional diagnostic methods are often invasive, expensive, and dependent on expert interpretation, which limits accessibility in resource-constrained settings. This study proposes an AI-based deep learning framework utilizing Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) to analyze clinical and histological images of oral lesions for automated detection and classification. The model is trained on a curated dataset to identify distinguishing patterns between benign and malignant cases with high accuracy. By automating the diagnostic process, the system aims to assist healthcare professionals in early identification of oral cancer, reduce diagnostic delays, and alleviate the workload on medical experts. The proposed approach has the potential to enhance screening programs, particularly in underserved regions, and contribute to improved health outcomes in oral oncology.
Deep learning; Images Classification; Oral Cancer; Feature Extraction.
Ashphak Khan, Anamika Patil, Nikita Borse, & Ashwini Shinkar. (2026). AI-Powered Oral Cancer Detection System Using Deep Learning. International Research Journal of Innovations in Engineering and Technology - IRJIET, 10(5), 496-504. Article DOI https://doi.org/10.47001/IRJIET/2026.105069
This work is licensed under Creative common Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 Internation Licence
P. R. Jeyaraj and E. R. Samuel Nadar, "Computer-assisted medical image classification for early diagnosis of oral cancer employing deep learning algorithm," Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology, 2019/01/03 2019.
H. Mohsen, E.-S. A. El-Dahshan, E.-S. M. El-Horbaty, and A.-B. M. Salem, "Classification using deep learning neural networks for brain tumors," Future Computing and Informatics Journal, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 68-71, 2018/06/01/ 2018.
M. Aubreville et al., "Automatic Classification of Cancerous Tissue in Laserendomicroscopy Images of the Oral Cavity using Deep Learning," Sci Rep, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 11979-11979, 2017.
V. A. A. Antonio, N. Ono, A. Saito, T. Sato, M. Altaf-Ul-Amin, and S. Kanaya, "Classification of lung adenocarcinoma transcriptome subtypes from pathological images using deep convolutional networks," (in eng), International journal of computer assisted radiology and surgery, vol. 13, no. 12, pp. 1905-1913,2018.
D. K. Jain et al., "An approach for hyperspectral image classification by optimizing SVM using self organizing map," Journal of Computational Science, vol. 25, pp. 252-259, 2018/03/01/ 2018.
E. Yilmaz, T. Kayikcioglu, and S. Kayipmaz, "Computer-aided diagnosis of periapical cyst and keratocystic odontogenic tumor on cone beam computed tomography," Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine, vol. 146, pp. 91-100, 2017/07/01/ 2017.
W. De Vos, J. Casselman, and G. R. J. Swennen, "Cone-beam computerized tomography (CBCT) imaging of the oral and maxillofacial region: A systematic review of the literature," International Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, vol. 38, no. 6, pp. 609-625, 2009/06/01/ 2009
C. Jaremenko et al., "Classification of Confocal Laser Endomicroscopic Images of the Oral Cavity to Distinguish Pathological from Healthy Tissue," in Bildverarbeitung für die Medizin 2015,
Berlin, Heidelberg, 2015: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 479-485. M. D. Zeiler and R. Fergus, "Visualizing and Understanding Convolutional Networks," in Computer Vision – ECCV 2014,
Cham, 2014: Springer International Publishing, pp. 818-833. Y. Ariji et al., "Contrast-enhanced computed tomography image assessment of cervical lymph node metastasis in patients with oral cancer by using a deep learning system of artificial intelligence," Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology and Oral Radiology, 2018/10/15/ 2018.
J. Sun et al., "Computed tomography versus magnetic resonance imaging for diagnosing cervical lymph node metastasis of head and neck cancer: a systematic review and metaanalysis," OncoTargets and therapy, vol. 8, pp. 1291-1313, 2015.
S. Liang et al., "Deep-learning-based detection and segmentation of organs at risk in nasopharyngeal carcinoma computed tomographic images for radiotherapy planning," European Radiology, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 1961-1967, 2019/04/01 2019.
R. Girshick, J. Donahue, T. Darrell, and J. Malik, "Region-Based Convolutional Networks for Accurate Object Detection and Segmentation," (in eng), IEEE Trans Pattern Anal Mach Intell, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 142-58, Jan 2016.
B. Song et al., "Automatic classification of dual-modalilty, smartphone-based oral dysplasia and malignancy images using deep learning," Biomed. Opt. Express, vol. 9, no. 11, pp. 53185329, 2018/11/01 2018.
K. H. Awan, P. R. Morgan, and S. Warnakulasuriya, "Evaluation of an autofluorescence based imaging system (VELscope™) in the detection of oral potentially malignant disorders and benign keratoses," Oral Oncology, vol. 47, no. 4, pp. 274-277, 2011/04/01/ 2011.
W. Poedjiastoeti and S. Suebnukarn, "Application of Convolutional Neural Network in the Diagnosis of Jaw Tumors," Healthcare Informatics Research, pp. 236-241, 2018.
I. Sturm, S. Lapuschkin, W. Samek, and K. R. Muller, "Interpretable deep neural networks for single-trial EEG classification," (in eng), Journal of neuroscience methods, vol. 274, pp. 141145, Dec 1 2016.
M. Halicek et al., "Deep convolutional neural networks for classifying head and neck cancer using hyperspectral imaging," Journal of biomedical optics, vol. 22, no. 6, pp. 60503-60503, 2017.
G. Lu and B. Fei, "Medical hyperspectral imaging: a review," Journal of biomedical optics, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 10901-10901, 2014.
J. Folmsbee, X. Liu, M. Brandwein-Weber, and S. Doyle, "Active deep learning: Improved training efficiency of convolutional neural networks for tissue classification in oral cavity cancer," in 2018 IEEE 15th International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI 2018), 2018, pp. 770-773.
L. Yisheng, Y. Duan, W. Kang, Z. Li, and F.-Y. Wang, Traffic Flow Prediction With Big Data: A Deep Learning Approach. 2014, pp. 865-873.
E. Rodner et al., "Fully convolutional networks in multimodal nonlinear microscopy images for automated detection of head and neck carcinoma: Pilot study," Head & Neck, vol. 41, no. 1, pp. 116-121, 2019/01/01 2019.
A. M. Bur et al., "Machine learning to predict occult nodal metastasis in early oral squamous cell carcinoma," Oral Oncology, vol. 92, pp. 20-25, 2019/05/01/ 2019.
R. K. De Silva, B. S. M. S. Siriwardena, A. Samaranayaka, W. A. M. U. L. Abeyasinghe, and W. M. Tilakaratne, "A model to predict nodal metastasis in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma," (in eng), PloS one, vol. 13, no. 8, pp. e0201755-e0201755, 2018.
S. Heuke et al., Multimodal nonlinear microscopy of head and neck carcinoma - toward surgery assisting frozen section analysis. 2016.
M. Nishio et al., "Computer-aided diagnosis of lung nodule classification between benign nodule, primary lung cancer, and metastatic lung cancer at different image size using deep convolutional neural network with transfer learning," PloS one, vol. 13, no. 7, pp. e0200721e0200721, 2018.
F. Ciompi et al., "Towards automatic pulmonary nodule management in lung cancer screening with deep learning," Scientific reports, vol. 7, pp. 46479-46479, 2017.
J. Behrmann, C. Etmann, T. Boskamp, R. Casadonte, J. Kriegsmann, and P. Maaβ, "Deep learning for tumor classification in imaging mass spectrometry," Bioinformatics, vol. 34, no. 7, pp. 1215-1223, 2017.
K. He, X. Zhang, S. Ren, and J. Sun, Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition. 2016, pp. 770-778.
Y. Song et al., Computer‐aided diagnosis of prostate cancer using a deep convolutional neural network from multiparametric MRI. 2018.
Y. Feng, L. Zhang, and Z. Yi, "Breast cancer cell nuclei classification in histopathology images using deep neural networks," International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 179-191, 2018/02/01 2018.