A review of automatic mass detection and segmentation in mammographic images

Received 30 June 2009; received in revised form 15 December 2009; accepted 18 December 2009. published online 28 December 2009.

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to review existing approaches to the automatic detection and segmentation of masses in mammographic images, highlighting the key-points and main differences between the used strategies. The key objective is to point out the advantages and disadvantages of the various approaches. In contrast with other reviews which only describe and compare different approaches qualitatively, this review also provides a quantitative comparison. The performance of seven mass detection methods is compared using two different mammographic databases: a public digitised database and a local full-field digital database. The results are given in terms of Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) and Free-response Receiver Operating Characteristic (FROC) analysis.

Keywords: Digital mammography, Computer-Aided Diagnosis systems, Breast mass detection, Automatic segmentation, FROC analysis

a Dept. of Computer Architecture and Technology, University of Girona Ed. P-IV, Campus de Montilivi 17071, Girona, Spain

b Dept. of Radiology, University Hospital Josep Trueta, Avda de França, s/n 17007, Girona, Spain

c Dept. of Breast Imaging, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, Norwich NR4 7UY, UK

d Dept. of Computer Science, University of Wales, Aberystwyth SY23 3DB, UK

Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 972 418878; fax: +34 972 418259.

PII: S1361-8415(09)00149-2

doi:10.1016/j.media.2009.12.005

2 of 13