Computer-aided diagnosis system for lung nodules based on computed tomography using shape analysis, a genetic algorithm, and SVM.

Journal: Medical & biological engineering & computing
Published Date:

Abstract

Lung cancer is the major cause of death among patients with cancer worldwide. This work is intended to develop a methodology for the diagnosis of lung nodules using images from the Image Database Consortium and Image Database Resource Initiative (LIDC-IDRI). The proposed methodology uses image processing and pattern recognition techniques. To differentiate the patterns of malignant and benign forms, we used a Minkowski functional, distance measures, representation of the vector of points measures, triangulation measures, and Feret diameters. Finally, we applied a genetic algorithm to select the best model and a support vector machine for classification. In the test stage, we applied the proposed methodology to 1405 (394 malignant and 1011 benign) nodules from the LIDC-IDRI database. The proposed methodology shows promising results for diagnosis of malignant and benign forms, achieving accuracy of 93.19 %, sensitivity of 92.75 %, and specificity of 93.33 %. The results are promising and demonstrate a good rate of correct detections using the shape features. Because early detection allows faster therapeutic intervention, and thus a more favorable prognosis for the patient, herein we propose a methodology that contributes to the area.

Authors

  • Antonio Oseas de Carvalho Filho
  • Aristófanes Corrêa Silva
    Federal University of Maranhão - UFMA, Applied Computing Group - NCA/UFMA, Av. dos Portugueses, SN, Campus do Bacanga, Bacanga 65085-580, São Luís, MA, Brazil. Electronic address: ari@dee.ufma.br.
  • Anselmo Cardoso de Paiva
    Applied Computing Group - NCA, Federal University of Maranhão - UFMA, Av. dos Portugueses, SN, Campus do Bacanga, Bacanga, São Luís, MA, 65085-580, Brazil.
  • Rodolfo Acatauassú Nunes
    State University of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Francisco de Xavier, 524, Maracana, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 20550-900, Brazil.
  • Marcelo Gattass
    Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro - PUC-Rio, R. São Vicente, 225, Gávea 22453-900, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. Electronic address: mgattass@tecgraf.puc-rio.br.