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A Deep Learning Framework for Brain Tumor Classification Using VGG16-Based Autoencoder with BiLSTM Feature Refinement Cover

A Deep Learning Framework for Brain Tumor Classification Using VGG16-Based Autoencoder with BiLSTM Feature Refinement

Open Access
|Feb 2026

Figures & Tables

Figure 1:

Overview of the architecture. MRI, magnetic resonance imaging.
Overview of the architecture. MRI, magnetic resonance imaging.

Figure 2:

Grad-CAM attention maps generated from the VGG16 encoder of the proposed VGG16-CAE + BiLSTM framework. BiLSTM, Bi-Directional Long Short-Term Memory; CAE, convolutional autoencoder.
Grad-CAM attention maps generated from the VGG16 encoder of the proposed VGG16-CAE + BiLSTM framework. BiLSTM, Bi-Directional Long Short-Term Memory; CAE, convolutional autoencoder.

Figure 3:

Confusion matrix.
Confusion matrix.

Figure 4:

Training and validation loss and accuracy curves for the VGG16-CAE + BiLSTM framework. BiLSTM, Bi-Directional Long Short-Term Memory; CAE, convolutional autoencoder.
Training and validation loss and accuracy curves for the VGG16-CAE + BiLSTM framework. BiLSTM, Bi-Directional Long Short-Term Memory; CAE, convolutional autoencoder.

Figure 5:

Comparison of model performance across various models.
Comparison of model performance across various models.

Figure 6:

Accuracy analysis.
Accuracy analysis.

Figure 7:

Precision analysis.
Precision analysis.

Figure 8:

Recall analysis.
Recall analysis.

Figure 9:

F1 score comparison.
F1 score comparison.

Error analysis

MetricStandard deviation (%)
Accuracy0.22
Precision0.18
Recall0.24
F1-score0.21

ROC analysis

ModelROC-AUC
VGG160.943
ResNet500.951
DenseNet1210.957
VGG16-CAE (without BiLSTM)0.970
Proposed VGG16-CAE + BiLSTM0.985

Comparative analysis of recent BT classification studies

StudyMethodologyDatasetKey contributionsLimitations
Shib et al [1]VGG16-based CNNKaggle Brain MRIDemonstrated pretrained CNNs improve classification accuracyNo temporal/sequential modeling; single-step classification
Hafeez et al. [2]CNN with custom layersPublic MRI datasetReinforced importance of convolutional feature extractionNo recurrent or sequential modeling explored
Manjunath et al. [6]Fine-tuned deep learning modelsBrain MRI DatasetPretrained architectures provide strong baselineExtensive hyperparameter tuning required; no hybrid model
Khan et al. [4]Hybrid-Net (DenseNet + SVM)Public MRI datasetCombined deep features with traditional classifiersNo ablation study; lacks temporal modeling
Saeedi et al. [8]CNN + SVMPublic Brain MRITwo-step pipeline (feature extraction + classification)No end-to-end joint optimization
Bouhafra & El Bahi [9]Systematic reviewMultiple MRI datasetsComprehensive survey of deep learning methodsNo sequential modeling in proposed frameworks
Alrashedy et al. [10]BrainGAN (GAN + CNN)Public brain MRISynthetic data augmentation to address dataset sizeNo recurrent/temporal modeling
Tabatabaei et al. [11]CNN + transformerBrain MRI DatasetAttention-based feature modeling improves interpretabilityHigh computational cost; lacks explicit temporal modeling
Şahin et al. [12]ViTBrain MRI DatasetMultiobjective optimization for efficient classificationGlobal attention may miss local sequential dependencies

Comparative evaluation of the proposed framework against baseline models

ModelAccuracy (%)Precision (%)Recall (%)F1-Score (%)ROC-AUC
Standard VGG16 (pretrained CNN)91.2 ± 0.891.5 ± 0.790.8 ± 0.991.1 ± 0.80.943 ± 0.007
ResNet50 (pretrained CNN)92.5 ± 0.792.7 ± 0.692.0 ± 0.892.3 ± 0.70.951 ± 0.006
DenseNet121 (pretrained CNN)93.1 ± 0.793.5 ± 0.692.7 ± 0.793.1 ± 0.70.957 ± 0.005
VGG16-CAE (without BiLSTM)94.3 ± 0.694.5 ± 0.594.0 ± 0.694.2 ± 0.50.970 ± 0.005
Proposed VGG16-CAE + BiLSTM96.8 ± 0.597.1 ± 0.496.5 ± 0.696.8 ± 0.50.985 ± 0.004

Quantitative performance metrics

MetricMean (%)95% CI (%)
Accuracy96.8±0.5
Precision97.1±0.4
Recall96.5±0.6
F1-score96.8±0.5
ROC-AUC0.985±0.004

Confusion matrix

Predicted tumorPredicted no tumor
Actual tumor291 ± 59 ± 4
Actual no tumor11 ± 3289 ± 5

Comparative analysis of the proposed framework with recent literature

StudyMethodologyDatasetAccuracy (%)Precision (%)Recall (%)F1-Score (%)
Shib et al. [1]VGG16-based CNNBrain MRI Kaggle Dataset94.094.393.894.1
Hafeez et al. [2]CNN with custom layersPublic MRI dataset92.593.091.892.4
Manjunath et al. (2025) [6]Fine-tuned deep learning modelsBrain MRI Dataset95.195.394.895.0
Saeedi et al. (2023) [8]CNN + SVM ClassifierPublic brain MRI Dataset93.794.093.293.6
Proposed VGG16-CAE + BiLSTMVGG16-based CAE + BiLSTMKaggle Brain MRI Dataset96.8 ± 0.597.1 ± 0.496.5 ± 0.696.8 ± 0.5

Hyperparameter tuning

HyperparameterFinal value
Learning rate0.0001
OptimizerAdam
Batch size32
Epochs50
BiLSTM units128
Dropout rate0.5
Language: English
Submitted on: May 23, 2025
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Published on: Feb 20, 2026
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 1 issue per year

© 2026 S. Jansi, P. T. Bharathi, A. B. Feroz Khan, R. Jayanthi, published by Professor Subhas Chandra Mukhopadhyay
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.