Feature extraction from mammographic mass shapes and development of a mammogram database

Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies in women and a rare malignancy in men. Women who are diagnosed at an early stage can survive this often deadly disease. Mammography provides the best screening modality for detecting early breast cancer, even before a lesion is palpable. Because of the malignant mass pathology, the shape of the mammographic mass can be used to discriminate between malignant and benign masses. In this study the use, of shape features to classify breast masses has been investigated and a classification scheme has been developed to classify masses as either benign or malignant. A mammogram database designed to store the images of the masses, calculated shape descriptor parameters and some additional data, such as patient history, category of the mass and biopsy report if performed which are required in BI-RADS is also introduced. A touch on memory system has been used as a tool that permits access to the electronic patient record in the mammogram database. The software is written in Delphi and runs on Windows operation systems.