A survey on brain tumor detection techniques for MR images

One of the most crucial tasks in any brain tumor detection system is the isolation of abnormal tissues from normal brain tissues. Interestingly, domain of brain tumor analysis has effectively utilized the concepts of medical image processing, particularly on MR images, to automate the core steps, i.e. extraction, segmentation, classification for proximate detection of tumor. Research is more inclined towards MR for its non-invasive imaging properties. Computer aided diagnosis or detection systems are becoming challenging and are still an open problem due to variability in shapes, areas, and sizes of tumor. The past works of many researchers under medical image processing and soft computing have made noteworthy review analysis on automatic brain tumor detection techniques focusing segmentation as well as classification and their combinations. In the manuscript, various brain tumor detection techniques for MR images are reviewed along with the strengths and difficulties encountered in each to detect various brain tumor types. The current segmentation, classification and detection techniques are also conferred emphasizing on the pros and cons of the medical imaging approaches in each modality. The survey presented here aims to help the researchers to derive the essential characteristics of brain tumor types and identifies various segmentation/classification techniques which are successful for detection of a range of brain diseases. The manuscript covers most relevant strategies, methods, their working rules, preferences, constraints, and their future snags on MR image brain tumor detection. An attempt to summarize the current state-of-art with respect to different tumor types would help researchers in exploring future directions.