This paper presents a feasibility study demonstrating that quantum machine learning (QML) algorithms achieve competitive performance on real-world medical imaging despite operating under severe constraints. We evaluate Equilibrium Propagation (EP), an energy-based learning method that does not use backpropagation (incompatible with quantum systems due to state-collapsing measurements) and Variational Quantum Circuits (VQCs) for automated detection of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) from blood cell microscopy images using binary classification (2 classes: AML vs. Healthy).
Key Result: Using limited subsets (50-250 samples per class) of the AML-Cytomorphology dataset (18,365 expert-annotated images), quantum methods achieve performance only 12-15% below classical CNNs despite reduced image resolution (64x64 pixels), engineered features (20D), and classical simulation via Qiskit. EP reaches 86.4% accuracy (only 12% below CNN) without backpropagation, while the 4-qubit VQC attains 83.0% accuracy with consistent data efficiency: VQC maintains stable 83% performance with only 50 samples per class, whereas CNN requires 250 samples (5x more data) to reach 98%. These results establish reproducible baselines for QML in healthcare, validating NISQ-era feasibility.
This paper presents a feasibility study demonstrating that quantum machine learning (QML) algorithms achieve competitive performance on real-world medical imaging despite operating under severe constraints. We evaluate Equilibrium Propagation (EP), an energy-based learning method that does not use backpropagation (incompatible with quantum systems due to state-collapsing measurements) and Variational Quantum Circuits (VQCs) for automated detection of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) from blood cell microscopy images using binary classification (2 classes: AML vs. Healthy).
Key Result: Using limited subsets (50-250 samples per class) of the AML-Cytomorphology dataset (18,365 expert-annotated images), quantum methods achieve performance only 12-15% below classical CNNs despite reduced image resolution (64x64 pixels), engineered features (20D), and classical simulation via Qiskit. EP reaches 86.4% accuracy (only 12% below CNN) without backpropagation, while the 4-qubit VQC attains 83.0% accuracy with consistent data efficiency: VQC maintains stable 83% performance with only 50 samples per class, whereas CNN requires 250 samples (5x more data) to reach 98%. These results establish reproducible baselines for QML in healthcare, validating NISQ-era feasibility.
Abstract Leukemia is a life-threatening blood cancer that requires early and accurate diagnosis to improve patient outcomes. Traditional diagnostic methods based on manual examination of blood smear images are time-consuming and prone to human error. With the advancement of artificial intelligence, automated detection systems using machine learning and deep learning techniques have shown promising results. However, classical models face limitations in handling complex feature spaces efficiently. To address this, this project proposes a hybrid approach titled “Leukemia Detection using Quantum Machine Learning”, which integrates classical image processing with quantum computing techniques. In this work, microscopic blood smear images from a publicly available Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia dataset are utilized. The images undergo preprocessing steps including resizing, noise removal using Gaussian filtering, and normalization to enhance data quality. A Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) is employed for classical feature extraction, transforming image data into meaningful feature vectors. These features are further reduced using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to make them suitable for quantum processing. The reduced feature set is encoded into quantum states using both angle encoding and amplitude encoding techniques. Quantum properties such as superposition and entanglement are leveraged through parameterized quantum circuits. Two quantum machine learning models, namely Quantum Support Vector Machine (QSVM) and Quantum Neural Network (QNN), are implemented to perform multi-class classification of leukemia stages, including Benign, Early, Pre, and Pro. The performance of both models is evaluated and compared using metrics such as accuracy, confusion matrix, and classification report. The proposed hybrid classical-quantum framework demonstrates the potential of quantum machine learning in medical image analysis. By combining deep learning with quantum algorithms, the system aims to improve diagnostic accuracy and computational efficiency. This approach not only enhances leukemia detection but also highlights the applicability of quantum computing in real-world healthcare problems, paving the way for future advancements in intelligent medical diagnosis systems.
Leukemia is a critical blood-related health problem for which early diagnosis is a key aspect in the survival of the patient. Computer-assisted diagnosis using microscopic white blood cell images has received significant attention because the conventional manual approach is too time-consuming. In this paper, a hybrid Quantum Machine Learning-based approach for the classification of leukemia is presented. In the first place, the microscopic white blood cell images are preprocessed using resizing, normalization, and denoising techniques. Then, Principal Component Analysis is applied for dimensionality reduction. The reduced feature vectors are then mapped onto a quantum system using a Variational Quantum Circuit-based Quantum Neural Network.The presented method also validates the possibility of quantum-assisted learning in biomedical image diagnosis. Additionally, it offers a glimpse of how well a hybrid model would perform under Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) conditions. The experimental results are achieved using standard performance parameters such as accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score. This method indicates how a hybrid model of QML can perform in a computationally simpler manner. This paper also indicates the potential of a quantum-classical system in future clinical applications for leukemia screening and diagnosis.
Accurate classification of blood cells is crucial for early diagnosis and monitoring of hematological disorders. However, manual microscopy is time-consuming, subjective, and prone to inter-observer variability. Deep learning has shown potential in automating this task, but its high computational demands limit its use in resource-constrained settings. This study aims to develop an efficient, hybrid quantum-classical model for blood cell classification using quantum simulation to reduce computational complexity without compromising accuracy. We propose a hybrid framework that integrates a 6-qubit variational quantum circuit (VQC) with a classical EfficientNet-B0 model. The model was trained and tested on the full BloodMNIST dataset, which includes 17,092 microscopic images across eight blood cell types. The proposed model achieved a test accuracy of 96.58% and a validation accuracy of 96.90%. F1-scores ranged from 91.97% to 99.84%, with notable results in neutrophils (98.80%) and lymphocytes (98.36%). These findings confirm the feasibility of combining quantum and classical approaches for medical image classification. The proposed hybrid model shows strong promise for practical use in diagnostic systems, especially in low-resource settings, and offers a pathway for future research in quantum-enhanced medical imaging.
Purpose This study investigates the integration of quantum-enhanced machine learning (QML) into medical image analysis, focusing on classification and feature extraction tasks. It aims to evaluate whether hybrid quantum-classical models can overcome the limitations of traditional machine learning in handling high-dimensional, clinically relevant imaging data. Design/methodology/approach Hybrid architectures combining classical preprocessing with quantum components, specifically variational quantum circuits (VQCs) and quantum kernel methods, were developed and implemented in simulated quantum environments using Qiskit and PennyLane on Google Colab. Publicly available datasets (ChestX-ray14, Brain Tumor MRI and CT Hemorrhage) were preprocessed and encoded into quantum states. Model performance was evaluated against classical baselines (MLP and CNN) using accuracy, precision, recall, F1-score, convergence speed and trainable parameters. Findings Quantum-enhanced models achieved competitive or superior performance compared to classical models with significantly fewer trainable parameters and faster convergence. The Quantum Kernel SVM demonstrated the highest precision (89.1%) and F1-score (88.5%) using only 8 parameters, while VQC models converged up to 2× faster than classical baselines. These results highlight the potential of QML to improve efficiency, robustness and scalability in diagnostic imaging workflows, particularly in resource-constrained or data-limited settings. Research limitations/implications The study relies on simulated quantum environments, which do not capture hardware noise or qubit limitations. Future work will extend to real quantum devices, multimodal data integration and interpretability strategies. Practical implications Quantum kernel methods and lightweight VQC architectures enable faster, resource-efficient diagnostic modeling, making them suitable for clinical environments with limited computational capacity or time-sensitive decision-making needs. Social implications Improving the efficiency and accessibility of medical image analysis has the potential to support faster diagnosis and enhance healthcare delivery, particularly in underserved or resource-limited regions. Originality/value This study provides a practical evaluation of hybrid quantum-classical models applied to multiple real medical imaging datasets in a reproducible simulated environment. It offers an early-stage framework demonstrating how QML techniques can be integrated into existing machine learning pipelines for medical image analysis.
This research work discusses three methods for detecting brain tumors using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) - a pre-trained convolutional neural network (CNN) baseline, a pure quantum machine learning (QML) classifier that utilizes amplitude embedding and variational quantum circuits, and a hybrid of QML with CNN backbone model with a parameterised quantum circuit (PQC). All models were trained and tested on the four-class brain tumor MRI dataset (glioma, meningioma, pituitary, and no tumor) using the same preprocessing and evaluation protocols. The typical classical convolutional neural network (CNN) baseline achieved a test accuracy of 86.1%, with an F1 score of 0.8512. By comparison, the pure QML model provided a rather poor model, achieving limited accuracy of 44.7% and F1 of 0.4320, largely due to issues with shallow variational circuits and amplitude encoding on higher-dimensional data. The hybrid CNN-QML model provided the best results, achieving a test accuracy of 94.9% and an F1 of 0.9469, surpassing the typical classical baseline. These results indicate while standalone QML models are currently limited by the expressivity of quantum circuits and the scalability of their dimensionality, hybrid quantum-classical models can increase medical image classification performance, even when starting from a strong classical baseline.
Accurate classification of microscopic blood cells is still a critical task in medical image analysis, where subtle variations and limited data can challenge conventional deep learning models. As such, we investigate in this work the potential of Hybrid Quantum-Classical Neural Networks (HQNNs) to enhance feature representation and improve classification performance in this domain. We propose a modular architecture combining a pre-trained ResNet-50 backbone with a low-dimensional latent bottleneck and a variational quantum circuit, enabling a direct comparison between quantum-enhanced and purely classical transformation mechanisms. To isolate the contribution of the quantum component, we evaluate three architectures: a HQNN model, a Classical Matched Model with an additional nonlinear transformation layer of comparable capacity, and a baseline model without an intermediate transformation stage. Experiments conducted on two publicly available blood cell datasets, namely the Blood Cell Images dataset and the PBC dataset, demonstrate that HQNNs consistently achieve superior or more balanced performance across evaluation metrics. In the Blood Cell Images Dataset, the proposed approach improves macro F1-score by up to 3.7% compared to classical baselines, while improving the F1-score from 98.54% to 98.69% in the more challenging 8-class scenario with near-saturated performance. Additional evaluation on IBM quantum hardware shows that the model remains robust under noise, with only a modest performance degradation relative to simulated results. These results indicate that quantum feature transformations can enhance discriminative representations, particularly in challenging classification scenarios, and highlight the practical potential of HQNN models for medical imaging tasks.