Yu, He, Guo, Jinming, Cao, Xiaorui, Li, Xuan, Li, Yulong, Hao, Jianying, Yang, Haoming, Zhou, Xi, and Huang, Tao (2026) DEGF-Net: Dual-Encoder Global–Local Joint Feature Aggregation Network for colorectal polyp segmentation. Biomedical Signal Processing and Control, 120. 110023.

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Abstract

Accurate segmentation of colorectal polyps in colonoscopy images is crucial for early prevention and computer-aided diagnosis of colorectal cancer, yet large variations in polyp appearance, low polyp-mucosa contrast, and device-related imaging discrepancies still hinder robust performance, especially for small and flat lesions and cross-dataset generalization. To address these challenges, we propose a Dual-Encoder Global–Local Joint Feature Aggregation Network (DEGF-Net) that enhances feature fusion and improves generalization. DEGF-Net adopts a dual-encoder architecture that separately models long-range global context and fine-grained local textures. A Global Joint Feature Fusion Module (GFFM) employs global attention to align and aggregate high-level features from both branches into a unified representation, while an Upper-Lower Level Feature Fusion Module (UL-FM) performs residual multi-scale cross-layer fusion in the decoder to narrow the semantic gap between high-level semantics and low-level details and refine polyp boundaries. In addition, a multi-output hybrid loss is applied to the final and intermediate predictions to leverage deep supervision, accelerate convergence, and improve robustness. Experiments on two benchmark colonoscopy datasets, Kvasir-SEG and CVC-ClinicDB, show that under a unified setting, DEGF-Net achieves mean Dice scores of 0.933 and 0.958, respectively, surpassing recent CNN-based, Transformer-based, and hybrid architectures and exhibiting strong cross-dataset generalization. These results indicate that DEGF-Net can substantially improve automatic polyp segmentation and provide a promising technical basis for computer-aided colorectal cancer screening.

Item ID:	93555
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1746-8108
Copyright Information:	© 2026 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Date Deposited:	18 Aug 2026 02:57
FoR Codes:	46 INFORMATION AND COMPUTING SCIENCES > 4602 Artificial intelligence > 460207 Modelling and simulation @ 100%
SEO Codes:	28 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 2801 Expanding knowledge > 280110 Expanding knowledge in engineering @ 100%
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