Breast cancer MRI diagnosis approach using support vector machine and pulse coupled neural networks

This article introduces a hybrid approach that combines the advantages of fuzzy sets, pulse coupled neural networks (PCNNs), and support vector machine, in conjunction with wavelet-based feature extraction. An application of breast cancer MRI imaging has been chosen and hybridization approach has been applied to see their ability and accuracy to classify the breast cancer images into two outcomes: normal or non-normal. The introduced approach starts with an algorithm based on type-II fuzzy sets to enhance the contrast of the input images. This is followed by performing PCNN-based segmentation algorithm in order to identify the region of interest and to detect the boundary of the breast pattern. Then, wavelet-based features are extracted and normalized. Finally, a support vector machine classifier was employed to evaluate the ability of the lesion descriptors for discrimination of different regions of interest to determine whether they represent cancer or not. To evaluate the performance of presented approach, we present tests on different breast MRI images. The experimental results obtained, show that the overall accuracy offered by the employed machine learning techniques is high compared with other machine learning techniques including decision trees, rough sets, neural networks, and fuzzy artmap. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.