Quantum computing provides a powerful solution by using quantum parallelism and state rotations to perform the analysis at a far superior rate. Key contributions of this study include: proposing a multi-layer Quantum Neural Networks (QNN) architecture where classical weights are replaced with quantum gates to achieve scalability learning; showing possible use of quantum entanglement in QNN to find features as edges of the tumour; and comparing the QNN model to conventional and semi-quantum models to prove the effectiveness of the quantum model. The methodology involves Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) brain tumour datasets and normalizes and augments the datasets to achieve good results. Qubit utilization is optimized through amplitude and basis encoding, while QNN layers employ rotation and entanglement gates. The model is trained with simulators available in the Qiskit environment and is tested on quantum devices (D-Wave). The QNN obtained an accuracy of 97.2% for biometric data; moreover, it had 96.5% precision and 98.1% recall, and an AUC-ROC score of 0.98 was higher than the classical and hybrid models. However, problems with quantum hardware and data encoding remain understudied and form the basis of possible subsequent experimentation in the healthcare area.
Quantum computing provides a powerful solution by using quantum parallelism and state rotations to perform the analysis at a far superior rate. Key contributions of this study include: proposing a multi-layer Quantum Neural Networks (QNN) architecture where classical weights are replaced with quantum gates to achieve scalability learning; showing possible use of quantum entanglement in QNN to find features as edges of the tumour; and comparing the QNN model to conventional and semi-quantum models to prove the effectiveness of the quantum model. The methodology involves Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) brain tumour datasets and normalizes and augments the datasets to achieve good results. Qubit utilization is optimized through amplitude and basis encoding, while QNN layers employ rotation and entanglement gates. The model is trained with simulators available in the Qiskit environment and is tested on quantum devices (D-Wave). The QNN obtained an accuracy of 97.2% for biometric data; moreover, it had 96.5% precision and 98.1% recall, and an AUC-ROC score of 0.98 was higher than the classical and hybrid models. However, problems with quantum hardware and data encoding remain understudied and form the basis of possible subsequent experimentation in the healthcare area.
Background: Quantum Neural Networks (QNNs) combine quantum computing and artificial intelligence to provide powerful solutions for high-dimensional data analysis. In magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), they address the challenges of advanced imaging sequences and data complexity, enabling faster optimization, enhanced feature extraction, and real-time clinical applications. Methods: A literature review using Scopus, PubMed, IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library and arXiv identified 84 studies on QNNs in MRI. After filtering for peer-reviewed original research, 20 studies were analyzed. Key parameters such as datasets, architectures, hardware, tasks, and performance metrics were summarized to highlight trends and gaps. Results: The analysis identified datasets supporting tasks like tumor classification, segmentation, and disease prediction. Architectures included hybrid models (e.g., ResNet34 with quantum circuits) and novel approaches (e.g., Quantum Chebyshev Polynomials). Hardware ranged from high-performance GPUs to quantum-specific devices. Performance varied, with accuracy up to 99.5% in some configurations but lower results for complex or limited datasets. Conclusions: The findings provide the first glimpse into the potential of QNNs in MRI, demonstrating accuracy and specificity in diagnostic tasks and biomarker detection. However, challenges such as dataset variability, limited quantum hardware access, and reliance on simulators remain. Future research should focus on scalable quantum hardware, standardized datasets, and optimized architectures to support clinical applications and precision medicine.
This research presents a new hybrid model that combines the capabilities of a pre-trained ResNet-50 with a Quantum Neural Network (QNN) to enhance the classification of MRI brain images for tumor recognition. Combining conventional deep learning and quantum computing, this technique competes with traditional models regarding accuracy, speed, and computational effectiveness. The ResNet-50 architecture is the foundation for feature extraction, using its demonstrated ability to handle challenging MRI image data. ResNet-50's linear layer weights are converted into angular parameters to take advantage of the potential of quantum computing, allowing the quantum layer to function within a six-angle depth framework. This unique integration allows the model to efficiently execute binary classification and multi-class tumor detection. The hybrid model outperforms conventional models, providing quicker processing speeds and higher classification accuracy, especially when dealing with high-dimensional and noisy data. The model optimizes 512-dimensional data using four qubits, allowing for improved feature representation and better insights into complicated medical imaging patterns. The quantum layer's resistance to noise enhances the model's accuracy, establishing a new standard for medical diagnostic tools. This novel integration of classical and quantum approaches offers a significant advance in MRI-based tumor identification, providing higher performance and opening the path for next-generation medical imaging systems.
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.
Furthermore, the physics and multimodality imaging characteristics of tumors, along with high variability in intensity, morphology and anatomical position of the tumor, make the diagnosis of tumors from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) still quite difficult. In this study, we introduce a hybrid quantum-classical Quantum Convolutional Neural Network (QCNN) that applies Quantum processing in the localized stage of feature extraction rather than later in the classification stage when most current quantum neural networks (CNNs) are used, for automated tumor detection from multiparametric MRI data. The proposed framework makes use of the BraTS 2021 data set, comprising of T1-weighted, post-contrast T1-weighted (T1Gd), T2-weighted and T2-FLAIR images, along with patient-level partitioning, intensity normalization, tumor relevant slice selection, 4×4/8×8 patch generation, dimensionality reduction, quantum angle encoding, trainable variational quantum transformations and Pauli-Z expectation-value measurements. This produced quantum feature maps which were summed across classical layers, and compared to a standard CNN and transfer learning CNN and CNN with a quantum classifier. The proposed QCNN showed excellent performance with 96% accuracy, 93% sensitivity, 94% specificity, 94% precision, 94% F1-score, AUPRC of 0.94, AUROC of 0.96 and the MCC score is 0.82, which is the best among all the architectures considered. The use of architectural analysis revealed to be an option, since 4-6 qubits, 2-3 quantum layers, angle encoding and linear or ring entanglement prove to be adequate. The results of robustness analysis showed that the performance is degrades progressively as the level of quantum noise is increased but still reached a good AUROC (0.80) in the case of strong quantum noise, and was confirmed by an independent external test with a value of 0.85. The results here show trainable quantum convolution to be one potential approach to localized multimodal representation learning for MRI, and present an indication of the impact of quantum noise, finite shot execution, and dataset shift. The study provides a groundwork for the further expansion of research into the use of quantum-enhanced MRI for analysis, in the form of an experimentally controlled experiments design, in larger independent cohorts of patients and with real quantum infrastructure.
The problem of classifying brain tumours using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a fundamental one in the field of computeraided diagnosis, since although many commonly employed convolutional neural network (CNN) architectures provide high accuracy they contain a large number of parameters, which has led to a search for more compact network designs. In this paper a hybrid quantum–classical approach is proposed that combines a lightweight CNN feature extractor with a trainable variational quantum circuit (VQC) in order to carry out four-class brain tumour classification. The MRI images are resized to 128 by 128 pixels and then processed by a small three-block CNN that reduces each image to an 8-dimensional feature vector. This vector is put into an 8-qubit quantum register by means of angle embedding and then acted on by a variational circuit composed of strongly entangling layers, by measuring each qubit in the Pauli-Z basis. The quantum features thus obtained are then fed into classical dense layers that categorise the images as glioma, meningioma, pituitary tumour or no tumour. The framework was tested on the Brain Tumor MRI dataset (7,200 images) and compared with a classical CNN baseline that was trained under the same conditions. The hybrid model reached a test accuracy of 76.88%, as compared to 72.31% for the classical baseline an improvement of 4.57 percentage points together with corresponding increases in macro-averaged precision, recall and F1-score. Notably, the hybrid model needed only 72 additional trainable parameters when compared to the classical baseline. The fact that the quantum layer was assessed using a noiseless simulator rather than on actual quantum hardware means that these results should be seen as indicating the feasibility of using compact quantum feature transformations for medical image classification rather than as showing a quantum advantage.
Brain tumor detection from MRI images is a critical and challenging task in medical diagnostics, where early identification greatly improves treatment outcomes. This paper presents a Hybrid Quantum– Classical Convolutional Neural Network (HQCNN) that integrates the strengths of ResNet-18 and a Variational Quantum Circuit for efficient and accurate tumor classification. The proposed model first employs ResNet-18 as a classical feature extractor, where 17 convolutional layers and pooling operations capture both low-level and high-level spatial features from MRI images. The final fully connected layer of ResNet-18 is replaced by a quantum processing layer implemented using PennyLane. In this layer, the extracted classical features are encoded onto qubits using RY rotation gates, while CNOT gates introduce entanglement between them, forming a VQC with trainable parameters. After quantum computation, Pauli-Z measurements convert the processed quantum states back into classical values, which are passed to a final fully connected layer for binary classification as Tumor or No Tumor. The hybrid integration of classical CNN feature learning with quantum entanglement– based representation enhances model generalization and interpretability. Experimental analysis demonstrates that the proposed HQCNN achieved 94.65% accuracy, outperforming traditional CNN models and confirming the potential of hybrid quantum–classical architectures for reliable and interpretable medical image diagnosis.