Identification of Lung Cancer Based on Shape and Color

The analysis of sputum color images can be used to detect the lung cancer in its early stages. However, the analysis of sputum is time consuming and requires highly trained personnel to avoid high errors. Image processing techniques provide a good tool for improving the manual screening of sputum samples. In this paper two basic techniques have been applied: a region detection technique and a feature extraction technique with the aim to achieve a high specificity rate and reduce the time consumed to analyze such sputum samples. These techniques are based on determining the shape of the nuclei inside the sputum cells. After that we extract some features from the nuclei shape to build our diagnostic rule. The final results will be used for a computer aided diagnosis (CAD) system for early detection of lung cancer.