Brain Tumor Classification via Statistical Features and Back-Propagation Neural Network

Abstract

Classification of brain tumor is the heart of the computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system designed to aid the radiologist in the diagnosis of such tumors using Magnetic Resonance Image (MRI). In this paper, we present a framework for classification of brain tumors in MRI images that combines statistical features and neural network algorithms. This algorithm uses region of interest (ROI), i.e. the tumor segment that is identified either manually by the technician/radiologist or by using any of the ROI segmentation techniques. We focus on feature selection by using a combination of the 2D Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) and 2D Gabor filter techniques. We create the features set using a complete set of the transform domain statistical features. For classification, back propagation neural network classifier has been selected to test the features selection impact. To do so, we used a large dataset consisting of 3,064 slices of T1-weighted MRI images with three types of brain tumors, Meningioma, Glioma, and Pituitary tumor. We obtained a total accuracy of 91.9%, and specificity of 96%, 96.29%, and 95.66% for Meningioma, Glioma, and Pituitary tumor respectively. Experimental results validate the effectiveness of the features selection method and indicate that it can compose an effective feature set to be used as a framework that can be combined with other classifications technique to enhance the performance.