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XMorph: Explainable Brain Tumor Analysis Via LLM-Assisted Hybrid Deep Intelligence

Sepehr Salem Ghahfarokhi, M. Moein Esfahani, Raj Sunderraman, Vince Calhoun, Mohammed Alser · Feb 24, 2026 · Citations: 0

Abstract

Deep learning has significantly advanced automated brain tumor diagnosis, yet clinical adoption remains limited by interpretability and computational constraints. Conventional models often act as opaque ''black boxes'' and fail to quantify the complex, irregular tumor boundaries that characterize malignant growth. To address these challenges, we present XMorph, an explainable and computationally efficient framework for fine-grained classification of three prominent brain tumor types: glioma, meningioma, and pituitary tumors. We propose an Information-Weighted Boundary Normalization (IWBN) mechanism that emphasizes diagnostically relevant boundary regions alongside nonlinear chaotic and clinically validated features, enabling a richer morphological representation of tumor growth. A dual-channel explainable AI module combines GradCAM++ visual cues with LLM-generated textual rationales, translating model reasoning into clinically interpretable insights. The proposed framework achieves a classification accuracy of 96.0%, demonstrating that explainability and high performance can co-exist in AI-based medical imaging systems. The source code and materials for XMorph are all publicly available at: https://github.com/ALSER-Lab/XMorph.

Human Data Lens

  • Uses human feedback: No
  • Feedback types: None
  • Rater population: Unknown
  • Unit of annotation: Unknown
  • Expertise required: Medicine, Coding

Evaluation Lens

  • Evaluation modes: Automatic Metrics
  • Agentic eval: None
  • Quality controls: Not reported
  • Confidence: 0.35
  • Flags: low_signal, possible_false_positive

Research Summary

Contribution Summary

  • Deep learning has significantly advanced automated brain tumor diagnosis, yet clinical adoption remains limited by interpretability and computational constraints.
  • Conventional models often act as opaque ''black boxes'' and fail to quantify the complex, irregular tumor boundaries that characterize malignant growth.
  • To address these challenges, we present XMorph, an explainable and computationally efficient framework for fine-grained classification of three prominent brain tumor types: glioma, meningioma, and pituitary tumors.

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