Development of a lung cancer image database and visualization toolkit / 生物医学工程学杂志

ABSTRACT

Lung cancer is the most common tumor and one of the malignant tumors with the lowest livability after diagnosis, as is known so far. Large-scale image database is the foundation of developing computer-aided diagnosis methods, education and training in lung cancer diagnosis to improve medical diagnostic efficiency and to reduce the doctors' burden. In this study, aiming at improving the low data storage efficiency and solving the lacking of tool for data visualization and data retrieval existing in the use of traditional Lung Image Database Consortium (LIDC) from the lung cancer database, we developed a new lung cancer image database platform including an improved data model, a data integration tool, an image and annotation visualization tool and a data retrieving component. Firstly, the data format in LIDC was analyzed and an improved information model was provided to manage and manipulate large amount data stored in it. Next, some tools such as data integration component, DICOM, image and annotation visualization tool, and data query were designed and implemented. The study demonstrated that the lung cancer image database platform had the capacity of data collection, visualization, and query, and could promote diagnose lung cancer research.