Advanced Fuzzy Methods for Mammography Image Analysis
Farhang Sahba, A. Venetsanopoulos, Gerald Schaefer · Advances in bioinformatics and biomedical engineering book series · 2012
Breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer worldwide and one of the most common causes of cancer deaths. Worryingly, breast cancer incidence rates have increased over recent years. Computer Aided Diagnosis (CADx) systems are designed to help radiologists identify cancerous signs earlier, and hence to reduce the death rate. These systems involve at least two main stages: feature extraction to derive useful information from the images, and diagnosis which is typically handled as a machine learning/pattern classification problem. For breast cancer diagnosis, x-ray mammography is the main modality of diagnosis. The inherent fuzziness in the nature of mammography images makes fuzzy set theory a useful technique for handling these images. It is used as a well-suited tool to extract meaningful information from inexact data and generate appropriate solutions. In this chapter, the authors present a fast overview of some fuzzy-based methods for computer-aided detection and computer aided diagnosis of breast cancer using mammography images. Their focus is on fuzzy logic-based methods developed for mammogram enhancement, microcalcification (MC) detection, and detection and classification of masses.