Detection of mammographic microcalcifications using a refined region-growing approach

Detection and characterization of microcalcification clusters in mammograms is vital in daily clinical practice. The problem of detecting possible cancer areas is very complex due, on one hand, to the diversity in shape of the ill tissue and, on the other hand, to the poorly defined border between the healthy and the cancerous zone. Even though it has been studied for many years, there are still remaining challenges and directions for future research, such as developing better enhancement and segmentation algorithms. In this paper, we propose a microcalcification detection algorithm using an extended region growing technique in a mammography CAD (computer-aided diagnosis) system.