Fuzzy C-Means Clustering with Histogram based Cluster Selection for Skin Lesion Segmentation using Non-Dermoscopic Images

Purpose – Pre-screening of skin lesion for malignancy is highly demanded as melanoma being a life-threatening skin cancer due to unpaired DNA damage. In this paper, lesion segmentation based on Fuzzy C-Means clustering using non-dermoscopic images has been proposed. Design/methodology/approach – The proposed methodology consists of automatic cluster selection for FCM using the histogram property. The system used the local maxima along with Euclidean distance to detect the binomial distribution property of the image histogram, to segment the melanoma from normal skin. As the Value channel of HSV color image provides better and distinct histogram distribution based on the entropy, it has been used for segmentation purpose. Findings – The proposed system can effectively segment the lesion region from the normal skin. The system provides a segmentation accuracy of 95.69 % and the comparative analysis has been performed with various segmentation methods. From the analysis, it has been observed that the proposed system can effectively segment the lesion region from normal skin automatically. Originality/Value – This paper suggests a new approach for skin lesion segmentation based on FCM with automatic cluster selection. Here, different color channel has also been analyzed using entropy to select the better channel for segmentation. In future, the classification of melanoma from benign naevi can be performed

Computer aided diagnostic support system for skin cancer: A review of techniques and algorithms

Image-based computer aided diagnosis systems have significant potential for screening and early detection of malignant melanoma. We review the state of the art in these systems and examine current practices, problems, and prospects of image acquisition, pre-processing, segmentation, feature extraction and selection, and classification of dermoscopic images. This paper reports statistics and results from the most important implementations reported to date. We compared the performance of several classifiers specifically developed for skin lesion diagnosis and discussed the corresponding findings. Whenever available, indication of various conditions that affect the technique's performance is reported. We suggest a framework for comparative assessment of skin cancer diagnostic models and review the results based on these models. The deficiencies in some of the existing studies are highlighted and suggestions for future research are provided. © 2013 Ammara Masood and Adel Ali Al-Jumaily

Computer Aided Diagnostic Support System for Skin cancer: Review of techniques and algorithms

Image-based computer aided diagnosis systems have significant potential for screening and early detection of malignant melanoma. We review the state of the art in these systems and examine current practices, problems, and prospects of image acquisition, pre-processing, segmentation, feature extraction and selection, and classification of dermoscopic images. This paper reports statistics and results from the most important implementations reported to date. We compared the performance of several classifiers specifically developed for skin lesion diagnosis and discussed the corresponding findings. Whenever available, indication of various conditions that affect the technique’s performance is reported. We suggest a framework for comparative assessment of skin cancer diagnostic models and review the results based on these models. The deficiencies in some of the existing studies are highlighted and suggestions for future research are provided

Application of Machine Learning in Melanoma Detection and the Identification of 'Ugly Duckling' and Suspicious Naevi: A Review

Skin lesions known as naevi exhibit diverse characteristics such as size, shape, and colouration. The concept of an "Ugly Duckling Naevus" comes into play when monitoring for melanoma, referring to a lesion with distinctive features that sets it apart from other lesions in the vicinity. As lesions within the same individual typically share similarities and follow a predictable pattern, an ugly duckling naevus stands out as unusual and may indicate the presence of a cancerous melanoma. Computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) has become a significant player in the research and development field, as it combines machine learning techniques with a variety of patient analysis methods. Its aim is to increase accuracy and simplify decision-making, all while responding to the shortage of specialized professionals. These automated systems are especially important in skin cancer diagnosis where specialist availability is limited. As a result, their use could lead to life-saving benefits and cost reductions within healthcare. Given the drastic change in survival when comparing early stage to late-stage melanoma, early detection is vital for effective treatment and patient outcomes. Machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) techniques have gained popularity in skin cancer classification, effectively addressing challenges, and providing results equivalent to that of specialists. This article extensively covers modern Machine Learning and Deep Learning algorithms for detecting melanoma and suspicious naevi. It begins with general information on skin cancer and different types of naevi, then introduces AI, ML, DL, and CAD. The article then discusses the successful applications of various ML techniques like convolutional neural networks (CNN) for melanoma detection compared to dermatologists' performance. Lastly, it examines ML methods for UD naevus detection and identifying suspicious naevi

A comparative study of algorithms for automatic segmentation of dermoscopic images

Melanoma is the most common as well as the most dangerous type of skin cancer. Nevertheless, it can be effectively treated if detected early. Dermoscopy is one of the major non-invasive imaging techniques for the diagnosis of skin lesions. The computer-aided diagnosis based on the processing of dermoscopic images aims to reduce the subjectivity and time-consuming analysis related to traditional diagnosis. The first step of automatic diagnosis is image segmentation. In this project, the implementation and evaluation of several methods were proposed for the automatic segmentation of lesion regions in dermoscopic images, along with the corresponding implemented phases for image preprocessing and postprocessing. The developed algorithms include methods based on different state of the art techniques. The main groups of techniques which have been selected to be studied and implemented are thresholding-based methods, region-based methods, segmentation based on deformable models, as well as a new proposed approach based on the bag-of-words model. The implemented methods incorporate modifications for a better adaptation to features associated with dermoscopic images. Each implemented method was applied to a database constituted by 724 dermoscopic images. The output of the automatic segmentation procedure for each image was compared with the corresponding manual segmentation in order to evaluate the performance. The comparison between algorithms was carried out regarding the obtained evaluation metrics. The best results were achieved by the combination of region-based segmentation based on the multi-region adaptation of the k-means algorithm and the subIngeniería de Sistemas Audiovisuale

Developing improved algorithms for detection and analysis of skin cancer

University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology.Malignant melanoma is one of the deadliest forms of skin cancer and number of cases showed rapid increase in Europe, America, and Australia over the last few decades. Australia has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world, at nearly four times the rates in Canada, the US and the UK. Cancer treatment costs constitute more 7.2% of health system costs. However, a recovery rate of around 95% can be achieved if melanoma is detected at an early stage. Early diagnosis is obviously dependent upon accurate assessment by a medical practitioner. The variations of diagnosis are sufficiency large and there is a lack of detail of the test methods. This thesis investigates the methods for automated analysis of skin images to develop improved algorithms and to extend the functionality of the existing methods used in various stages of the automated diagnostic system. This in the long run can provide an alternative basis for researchers to experiment new and existing methodologies for skin cancer detection and diagnosis to help the medical practitioners. The objective is to have a detailed investigation for the requirements of automated skin cancer diagnostic systems, improve and develop relevant segmentation, feature selection and classification methods to deal with complex structures present in both dermoscopic/digital images and histopathological images. During the course of this thesis, several algorithms were developed. These algorithms were used in skin cancer diagnosis studies and some of them can also be applied in wider machine learning areas. The most important contributions of this thesis can be summarized as below: - Developing new segmentation algorithms designed specifically for skin cancer images including digital images of lesions and histopathalogical images with attention to their respective properties. The proposed algorithm uses a two-stage approach. Initially coarse segmentation of lesion area is done based on histogram analysis based orientation sensitive fuzzy C Mean clustering algorithm. The result of stage 1 is used for the initialization of a level set based algorithm developed for detecting finer differentiating details. The proposed algorithms achieved true detection rate of around 93% for external skin lesion images and around 88% for histopathological images. - Developing adaptive differential evolution based feature selection and parameter optimization algorithm. The proposed method is aimed to come up with an efficient approach to provide good accuracy for the skin cancer detection, while taking care of number of features and parameter tuning of feature selection and classification algorithm, as they all play important role in the overall analysis phase. The proposed method was also tested on 10 standard datasets for different kind of cancers and results shows improved performance for all the datasets compared to various state-of the art methods. - Proposing a parallelized knowledge based learning model which can make better use of the differentiating features along with increasing the generalization capability of the classification phase using advised support vector machine. Two classification algorithms were also developed for skin cancer data analysis, which can make use of both labelled and unlabelled data for training. First one is based on semi advised support vector machine. While the second one based on Deep Learning approach. The method of integrating the results of these two methods is also proposed. The experimental analysis showed very promising results for the appropriate diagnosis of melanoma. The classification accuracy achieved with the help of proposed algorithms was around 95% for external skin lesion classification and around 92 % for histopathalogical image analysis. Skin cancer dataset used in this thesis is obtained mainly from Sydney Melanoma Diagnostic Centre, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. While for comparative analysis and benchmarking of the few algorithms some standard online cancer datasets were also used. Obtained result shows a good performance in segmentation and classification and can form the basis of more advanced computer aided diagnostic systems. While in future, the developed algorithms can also be extended for other kind of image analysis applications

A survey, review, and future trends of skin lesion segmentation and classification

The Computer-aided Diagnosis or Detection (CAD) approach for skin lesion analysis is an emerging field of research that has the potential to alleviate the burden and cost of skin cancer screening. Researchers have recently indicated increasing interest in developing such CAD systems, with the intention of providing a user-friendly tool to dermatologists to reduce the challenges encountered or associated with manual inspection. This article aims to provide a comprehensive literature survey and review of a total of 594 publications (356 for skin lesion segmentation and 238 for skin lesion classification) published between 2011 and 2022. These articles are analyzed and summarized in a number of different ways to contribute vital information regarding the methods for the development of CAD systems. These ways include: relevant and essential definitions and theories, input data (dataset utilization, preprocessing, augmentations, and fixing imbalance problems), method configuration (techniques, architectures, module frameworks, and losses), training tactics (hyperparameter settings), and evaluation criteria. We intend to investigate a variety of performance-enhancing approaches, including ensemble and post-processing. We also discuss these dimensions to reveal their current trends based on utilization frequencies. In addition, we highlight the primary difficulties associated with evaluating skin lesion segmentation and classification systems using minimal datasets, as well as the potential solutions to these difficulties. Findings, recommendations, and trends are disclosed to inform future research on developing an automated and robust CAD system for skin lesion analysis