2013 IEEE Point-of-Care Healthcare Technologies (PHT)

Bangalore, India, 16 - 18 January, 2013

Novel Image Processing Techniques for Early Detection of Breast

Cancer, Mat lab and Lab view implementation
P.Spandana, Dr.Kunda M.M.Rao, SMIEEE, Prof.B.V.V.S.N.Prabhakar rao, Dr.Jwalasrikala

[6] where an image is decomposed into sub-bands, from



Abstract—Early detection of breast cancer is carried out by

using mammographic images. Due to low contrast nature of
these images, it is difficult to detect signs such as
microcalcifications and masses. This paper describes novel
algorithms for early detection of breast cancer using image
enhancement techniques to identify masses and
microcalcifications. We implemented algorithm for 1) Image
enhancement using wavelets and adaptive histogram
equalization technique 2) Segmentation of masses is done using
region growing technique 3) Extraction of border of the mass
using canny edge detection and morphological operations.
Bilateral asymmetry was detected using fluctuating asymmetry
[9]. The paper presents case studies of four patients, though
fourteen patient breast images are processed having different
mammographic features.
I. INTRODUCTION
Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women
worldwide and more so in India. About 10% of women are
confronted with breast cancer in their lives. Early detection
and diagnosis of breast cancer using digital mammography
and image processing can increase survival rate and chances
for complete recovery of patients. Several image processing
techniques have been developed to improve the detection of
four abnormal features in breast mammograms: 1.
Microcalcifications 2. Masses 3. Bilateral Asymmetry 4.
Architectural distortion.
Radiologists give special attention to calcifications with
dimensions of 0.2 to 0.3 mm, with a higher suspicious
degree to aligned or clustered microcalcifications [1], [2].
Masses are the most common asymmetric signs of cancer
and appear brighter than the surrounding tissue [3]. Most
benign masses possess well-defined sharp borders, while
malignant tumors often have ill-defined, microlobulated, or
spiculated borders. Bilateral asymmetry is an asymmetry of
the breast parenchyma between left and right breast, may
indicate breast cancer in its early stage. An architectural
distortion on a mammogram is basically a disruption of the
normal ‘random’ pattern of curvilinear and fine linear
radiopaque structures. There is no visible mass, but the
distortion often appears as a ‘stellate’ shape or with
radiating spiculation[4].Many techniques have been
developed for the detection of microcalcifications, masses
and bilateral asymmetry. Enhancement is done using
morphological top hat transform [5]. Microcalcification
corresponds to high frequency components of image
spectrum. Microcalcifications are detected using wavelets
which low frequency sub-band is eliminated and image is
reconstructed from remaining bands. Pyramid segmentation
and decision tree classification were used to detect the
masses [7]. Bilateral asymmetry was detected using B-
spline interpolation [8]. Bilateral breast volume asymmetry
in screening mammograms is calculated as a potential
marker of breast cancer analysis [9]. Breast shape is
assumed as conical shape for volume calculations [10].
II. IMPLEMENTATION OF NOVEL TECHNIQUE USING MATLAB
AND LABVIEW
A. Image enhancement
Gaussian resolution hierarchy (Gaussian pyramid) is
generated for the mammogram image. The hierarchy
consists of two levels (0-1). The standard resolution of level
0 image is 1914×2294. Level 1 image is obtained by
reducing the size of level 0 image to half the width and
height in labview by cubic spline resampling technique i.e,
957×1147. Level 1 image and level 0 (upscale image) are
decomposed by daubenchies wavelets and then fused by
matlab max-max fusion. Then to the output of the fused
image, adaptive histogram equalization technique is applied.
(AHE) The process is given in fig.1
Original image
Gaussian filtered image
Downscale by half
Image
Arthmetic
Gausian filter
Upscale the image to original size
Wavelet fusion with the original image
AHE
CLAHE
Fig. 1. Flow chart for image enhancement

978-1-4673-2767-1/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE 105

Procedure: Table I gives the enhancements with AHE (Adaptive
Step 1: Apply Gaussian filter to the breast image (level 0) , histogram equalization techniques), Wavelets, Image
then it is downscaled by cubic spline resampling technique arithmetic for all the four patients.
in labview to bring into level 1 image i.e., half width and B. Segmentation
height as shown in Fig 2. Segmentation of masses is done by using region
Step 2: Gaussian filter is applied to level 1 in labview. growing technique. Canny edge detection is used to
Step 3: The image is upscaled to original size by using cubic extract the border. This border is processed with
spline interpolation. grayscale erosion followed by gray scale dilation in
Step 4: Wavelet max-max fusion is applied using
lab view.
daubenchies wavelets in matlab as shown in Fig 3.
Step 5: AHE (Adaptive histogram equalization) is applied to
Procedure:
the output in step 4. Step 1: Segmentation of mass is done using region
growing technique in matlab. Seed point S is chosen
as highest intensity value in the mass and threshold
value T is chosen by looking at its histogram i.e., the
difference between maximum value in the mass and
the location of first major valley to the left of
histogram.
Step2: Canny edge detection operator in matlab is
used to extract the border.
Fig. 2. Resampled output in Lab view Step3: Gray scale dilation using 5×5 kernel as
structuring element is done in lab view.
Step4: Gray scale erosion using 5×5 kernel as
structuring element is done labview. Obtain margin of
the mass, area, mean, standard deviation, using magic
wand tool in lab view.
Breast Gray scale erosion
image
Region growing
Fig. 3. Fusion output in mat lab Border
Mass
TABLE I
Patient Image Canny edge
Original AHE Wavelet
No Arithmetic

1 Gray scale dilation

Fig. 4. Flow chart for segmentation

TABLE II
2
Patient Original Margin Segmented Mass border
No mass mass

1
3

3
4

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Table II gives margin of the mass, Segmented mass and Patient 2
border of the mass for all four patients.

C. Bilateral Asymmetry
In this paper we detected bilateral asymmetry by
calculating fluctuating asymmetry with the volumes of CC
left and CC right breast. Fluctuating asymmetry (FA), is
used as a measure of phenotype-based deformation and it is
useful predictor. Low FA can successfully predict lower
morbidity. This is a preliminary investigation of this Fig. 6. (a) CC left breast measure (b) CC Right breast measure
concept with respect to breast cancer.
Patient 3
We performed computerized analysis of screening
mammograms to derive measures of bilateral breast
asymmetry. These measures included the height, width, and
volume and they were calculated separately for each breast
and for each CC view in labview. The breast volume was
calculated assuming a conical shape.. The height h is the
maximum depth perpendicular to the chest wall at the
proximal edge of the film. The breast width w represents the Fig.7. (a)CC left breast measure (b) CC Right breast measure
maximum breast outline at the proximal edge of the film.
Accordingly the breast volume for the CC views is Patient 4
calculated as
Volume V =
Fluctuating Asymmetry = + 2│ − │
= Volume of the left breast
= Volume of the right breast
Vdiff = Volume difference
Procedure: Fig.8. (a) CC left breast measure (b) CC Right breast measure
Step 1: Get the height of the breast in CC view using
measure tool in lab view as shown in Fig 4. Figs 5(a), 6(a), 7(a), 8(a) give CC left breast measure. Figs
Step 2: Get the width of the breast in CC view using 5(b), 6(b), 7(b), 8(b) give CC right breast measure. All
measure tool in labview as shown in Fig 4. images are of the size 1914×2294.The observations on
Step 3: Calculate the volume of left and right breast by processed mammograms were verified by Radiology dept.,
using above formula. Krishna institute of medical sciences (KIMS), Hyderabad.
The output is in terms of pixels. As the resolution of image This work is done in lab view and matlab,as mentioned.
is 96dpi, it is converted to centimeters.
TABLE III

Patient Vdiff
Masses MC FA BA A
No

1 SM NP 2484 0.0529 P M

2 NP NP 695.4 0.00707 NP N

3 CM NP 185.2 0.0022 NP B
Fig. 4. Measurement of height and width in labview

Patient 1 4 NP NP 4901.5 0.03244 P EI

P:Present, NP: Not present, SM: Spiculated mass, CM: Circumscribed

mass, MC: Microcalcifications, FA: Fluctuating Asymmetry, BA: Bilateral
Asymmetry, M:Malignant, B:Benign, EI: Early indication, A: Assesment

Table III gives the details and assessment of four patients

Fig.5. (a) CC left breast measure (b) CC Right breast measure

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 TABLE IV enhancement or lower level of enhancement [11].
Patient III CONCLUSION
Mass Area ) Mean SD
No
In this study, we processed images of 14 patients. We
1 Spiculated 32 253.81 3.852
3 Circumscribed 32.74 250.38 12.97
observed that cancer patients have high fluctuating
9 Microlobulated 19.20 252.2 5.665 asymmetry. Clinically it was observed that Patient 4 is
12 Lobulated 12.069 250 10.96 benign case, but she has high fluctuating asymmetry which
13 Spiculated 18.33 250 2.592 can be the early indication for breast cancer. It is observed
14 Spiculated 45.97 231 3.565 that standard deviation of spiculated masses is less
SD: Standard deviation compared to circumscribed masses. Image processing
Table IV gives area, mean, standard deviation of the masses methodology helps doctors to identify cancer patients
present in patients 1,3,9,12,13. easily. Also the boundary of mass is seen clearly, as it is
delineating the mass from breast parenchyma and it helps
TABLE V
doctors to detect automatically malignant mass (cancer) and
Patient Vdiff
No
Masses MC FA BA A benign mass (normal). High fluctuating asymmetry
indicates the presence of bilateral asymmetry which
5 NP NP 1884 0.02787 P EI facilitates the doctor to further investigate the cases for early
6 NP P 1164.7 0.0142 NP B detection of breast cancer. In future we would like to extract
7 NP NP 395.6 0.0099 NP N
8 NP NP 1064 0.01815 P EI
more features of mass, study the features of
9 MLM P 1022 0.021 P EI microcalcification and further classify the breast mass and
10 NP NP 431.5 0.00839 NP N microcalcifications to identify benign or malignant patients
11 NP NP 853 0.018 P EI for early detection of breast cancer.
12 LM NP 395.6 0.00994 NP B
AKNOWLEDGEMENT
13 SM NP 2526.6 0.0238 P M
14 SM P 455.2 0.01809 P M
We thank Director, BITS, Hyderabad for supporting our
research work and providing facilities. Authors gratefully
acknowledge KIMS, Hyderabad for supporting the research
P:Present, NP: Not present, SM: Spiculated mass, CM: Circumscribed work by providing mammographic images, analyzing the
mass,LM:Lobulatedmass,MLM:Microlobulatedmass,MC:Microcalcificatio
outputs and providing useful comments.
n, FA: Fluctuating Asymmetry, BA: Bilateral Asymmetry, M:Malignant,
B:Benign, EI: Early indication, N:Normal, A:Assesment .
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