Combining Multifractal Analyses of Digital Mammograms and Infrared Thermograms to Assist in Early Breast Cancer Diagnosis

We used a 1D wavelet transform modulus maxima (WTMM) method to analyze the temporal fluctuations of breast skin temperature recorded with an infrared (IR) camera from a panel of patients with breast cancer. This study shows that the multifractal complexity of temperature fluctuations observed in healthy breasts, is lost in the region of the malignant tumor in cancerous breasts. Then, we applied the 2D WTMM method to analyze the spatial fluctuations of breast density in the X-ray mammograms of the same patients. Compared to the correlated roughness fluctuations observed in the healthy areas, some clear loss of correlations is detected in malignant tumor foci. These physiological and architectural changes in the environment of malignant tumors detected in both thermograms and mammograms open new perspectives in computer-aided multifractal methods to assist in early breast cancer diagnosis.