Nuclei Segmentation on Histopathology Images of Breast Carcinoma.

With the use of computer-aided diagnostic systems, the automatic detection and segmentation of the cell nuclei have become essential in pathology due to cellular nuclei counting and nuclear pleomorphism analysis are critical for the classification and grading of breast cancer histopathology. This work describes a methodology for automatic detection and segmentation of cellular nuclei in breast cancer histopathology images obtained from the BreakHis database, the Standford tissue microarray database, and the Breast Cancer Cell Segmentation database. The proposed scheme is based on the characterization of Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) staining, size, and shape features. In addition, we use the information obtained from morphological transformations and adaptive intensity adjustments to detect and separate each cell nucleus detected in the image. The segmentation was carried out by testing the proposed methodology in a histological breast cancer database that provides the associated groundtruth segmentation. Subsequently, the Sørensen-Dice similarity coefficient was calculated to analyze the suitability of the results.Clinical relevance- In this work, the detection and segmentation of cell nuclei in breast cancer histological images are carried out automatically. The method can identify cell nuclei regardless of variations in the level of staining and image magnification. Moreover, a granulometric analysis of the components allows identifying cell clumps and segment them into individual cell nuclei. Improved identification of cell nuclei under different image conditions was demonstrated to reach a sensitivity average of 0.76 ± 0.12. The results provide a base for further and complex processes such as cell counting, feature analysis, and nuclear pleomorphism, which are relevant tasks in the evaluation and diagnostic performed by the expert pathologist.

Density map and fuzzy classification for breast density by using BI-RADS.

Mammographic density (MD) is conformed by a different percentage of stromal, epithelial, and adipose tissue within the breast. One of the most critical findings in mammographic patterns for establishing a diagnosis of breast cancer is high breast tissue density. There is a wide variety of works focused on the study and automatic calculation of general breast density; however, they do not provide more detailed information about the changes that may occur within the breast tissue. This work proposes to generate a breast density map based on a texture analysis to identify the internal composition and distribution of the breast tissue through the diffuse division technique of the different densities inside the breast. Therefore, it is possible to obtain a density map associated with the breast that allows us to distinguish and quantify the different types of breast densities and their distribution according to the Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS Breast Density Category). The proposed methodology was tested with mammograms from the BCDR and InBreast databases, demonstrating consistency in results and reaching an accuracy of 84.2% and 81.3%, respectively. Finally, the information obtained from the density map and its analysis could be a support tool for the specialist physician to monitor changes in breast density over time, since the fuzzy classification carried out allows quantifying the degree of membership in the BI-RADS breast density classes.