Region-based loss functions, such as the Dice loss, have established themselves as the de facto standard for highly class- and region-imbalanced segmentation tasks. However, models trained using region-based loss functions are notoriously miscalibrated and typically yield over-confident predictions.
Medical image segmentation is a fundamental task for medical image processing and computer-assisted intervention, yet data imbalance and small lesion detection pose significant challenges. Dice Loss, which measures the overlap between predicted and ground truth regions, is widely used to mitigate these issues.
The paper introduces a Deep Active Contour and Mean Curvature (DACMC) loss function for medical image segmentation. By incorporating mean curvature as a geometric constraint and approximating it with a convolution kernel, the method aims to improve the geometric characterization of segmented regions. Experiments on liver and spleen datasets show that DACMC achieves new state‑of‑the‑art performance across several segmentation benchmarks.
By Xiao-qiang Zhai, Zhi-feng Pang, Peng Zheng, Ze-wen Li, Yan-zhe Hou
arXiv:2607. 22727v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Medical image segmentation models often report high benchmark accuracy under ideal imaging conditions, yet their failures under clinical degradation can be quiet: sensor noise, patient motion, low- resolution acquisition, and contrast variability may all alter model behavior without producing an obvious warning.
By Pranav Kaliaperumal, Manisha Kaliaperumal
arXiv:2512. 14937v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Gliomas are the most common malignant brain tumors in adults and are among the most lethal.
By Abhijeet Parida, Daniel Capell\'an-Mart\'in, Zhifan Jiang, Nishad Kulkarni, Krithika Iyer, Austin Tapp, Syed Muhammad Anwar, Mar\'ia J. Ledesma-Carbayo, Marius George Linguraru
arXiv:2606. 15837v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Deep neural networks (DNNs) frequently fail to generalize to out-of-distribution (OOD) medical images because of variations in scanners and acquisition protocols.
By Jimut B. Pal, Suyash P. Awate
arXiv:2606. 16868v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: While federated learning (FL) enables collaborative medical image segmentation without centralizing sensitive data, real-world deployment is frequently complicated by cross-site label imperfections such as contour disagreement, missing or additional structures, and confused labels.
By Markus Bujotzek, Dimitrios Bounias, Stefan Denner, Ralf Floca, Maximilian Fischer, Peter Neher, Klaus Maier-Hein
arXiv:2609.25850v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Deep learning performance generally improves with increasing training data, yet this scaling is fundamentally constrained by annotation cost in large-s...
By Xiaofei Du, Lei Zhang, Shuyu Yan, Manning Wang, Zhijian Song
The paper proposes a two‑stage learning framework for multi‑organ segmentation that handles partially annotated datasets and domain shifts. First, the model learns accurate segmentations from available annotations to build robust feature representations. Second, it introduces learnable organ prototypes and a Sinkhorn‑triplet loss to enforce organ‑wise feature consistency across datasets, keeping embeddings of the same organ close while separating different organs, even when annotations are missing.
By Dakini Mallam Garba, Salim Abdou Daoura
The paper introduces a method for generalizable brain tumor segmentation in the BraTS 2026 Challenge. It builds on the nnU-Net framework with a large residual encoder, adding semi‑supervised learning via pseudo‑labels and a tumor‑aware deformable augmentation that locally deforms lesions while preserving surrounding anatomy. The approach improves Dice and NSD scores across all tumor regions compared to labeled‑only baselines, demonstrating the complementary benefits of self‑training and the proposed augmentation.
By Henrique Zan Grande, Jeovane Honorio Alves, Rayson Laroca, Andre Gustavo Hochuli
The paper introduces Segment Anything Small (SAS), a data‑augmentation method that improves deep‑learning segmentation of small anatomical structures in ultrasound images. SAS uses two transformations: resizing and embedding organ thumbnails into a black background to vary organ scale, and adding noise to regions of interest to mimic tissue texture variability. Experiments on one internal and five external datasets show Dice score gains up to 0.35, with an average improvement of 0.16, and demonstrate that SAS enhances model robustness and generalizability without adding hallucinations or artifacts.
By Danielle L. Ferreira, Ahana Gangopadhyay, Hsi-Ming Chang, Ravi Soni, Gopal Avinash
The paper introduces BiCC, a bidirectional connected-component loss that pairs annotation- and prediction-derived partitions to score predicted components on their own scale. By deriving instances from predictions, BiCC directly penalizes false-positive components regardless of size, allowing a balance parameter to control the lesion-wise precision–recall trade-off. Across five datasets, BiCC outperforms existing instance-aware losses such as CC-DiceCE and blob loss in lesion-wise F1, and improves over DiceCE on multiple datasets.
By Luc Bouteille, Frederic Jonske, Jens Kleesiek, Alexander Jaus