A method for detection of malignant masses in digitized mammograms using a fuzzy segmentation algorithm

Abstract

An algorithm for detection of masses in digitized mammograms is developed. In the first step, the algorithm employs a segmentation method based on the idea of fuzzy sets to divide a mammogram into different regions and produces some mass candidates. In the second step, some discrete texture features are calculated for the area of each mass candidate. Two of those feature were sufficient to produce a 94% true-positive detection rate with a low 0.24 false-positives per image for a data set of 35 mammograms with a malignant mass in each.