Contour extraction for breast tumor in ultrasound image

Shape features are usually considered for discriminating benign and malignant breast tumors in ultrasound image. A contour extraction method is presented for the purpose of discrimination. A half contouring is devised for reducing the influence of shadow effect resulting from the ultrasonic energy decay. Based on the cue of contour variation, degree standard variation and texture information are developed as useful features for the discrimination. Above 70% accuracy could be obtained by using the adopted half contour information. Experiments confirm the feasibility of the proposed method.