Developing a Computer-Aided Diagnostic System for Breast Cancer Ultrasound Imaging

In this research we aim to develop a Computer-aided diagnostic system (CAD) for breast ultrasound imaging to enhance the early detection of breast cancer. CAD tools aid physicians in the diagnostic process leading to early detection and treatment of breast cancer. The proposed CAD tool comprises three stages, the first is enhancement of breast ultrasound imaging by applying custom segmentation deep learning architectures [U-Net, SK-U-Net, RDA-U-Net] to enhance the isolation of masses in Ultrasound images, then generation of new ultrasound images by employing Generative Adversarial Networks [DAGAN, DCGAN] to overcome data limitation in available data-sets, and the last stage is the detection and classification of breast cancer masses by a CNN model. The enhancement stage shows promising results with accuracy of 98 % overall accuracy, 92 % overall precision, and 85 % overall sensitivity.Clinical Relevance: Breast cancer is one of the deadly diseases in the world. The earlier the detection the higher the chances of recovery. Thus a CAD tool that facilitates the screening process of ultrasound images will aid physicians in the early detection and diagnosis of the disease.