SLT: Robust Quantum Neural Networks for Noisy-Label Medical Image Classification via Supermartingale-based Label Transition

Researchers propose Supermartingale-based Label Transition (SLT), an anchor-free loss correction framework for robust quantum neural network (QNN)-based medical image classification under noisy labels. SLT models entropy reduction as a supermartingale to dynamically refine transition matrices, reducing noise-driven oscillations during QNN training. Experiments on small-scale medical image datasets show SLT consistently improves QNN classification and outperforms classic noisy-label learning baselines under synthetic and real-world label noise.

arXiv:2607.16293v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Noisy-label learning in small-scale medical image classification is challenging and hinders the superiority of deep neural networks. Recent studies suggest that quantum neural networks QNNs have shown potential in limited-data regimes, yet their use for noisy-label learning remains under-explored. A key obstacle is QNNs' intrinsic "natural smoothness", which may regularize training but also obscure high-confidence samples needed for noise-transition estimation. We propose Supermartingale-based Label Transition SLT , an anchor-free loss correction framework for robust QNN-based medical image classification under noisy labels. SLT models entropy reduction in predictive distributions as a supermartingale and uses its monotonic behavior to identify stable transition-matrix refinement steps. This enables dynamic transition updates while reducing noise-driven oscillations during QNN training. We further provide a convergence analysis showing that the proposed transition-refinement process reaches a steady state. Experiments on multiple public small-scale medical image datasets demonstrate that SLT consistently improves QNN-based classification and stably outperforms classic noise-label learning baselines under synthetic and real-world label noise.