Segmentation of Breast Thermogram Images for the Detection of Breast Cancer – A Projection Profile Approach

Breast Thermography is an emerging medical imaging tool, used for early detection of breast cancer. The growing tumor in the breast will cause the occurrence of some asymmetric heat patterns in the left and right breast. Asymmetry analysis of left and right breast is used for detecting the breast cancer from the breast thermogram images. This paper presents a method for segmenting the left and right breast from breast thermogram images using Projection Profile Approach. Horizontal Projection Profile (HPP) method is used for locating the lower and upper borders of the breast by detecting the inframammary fold and axilla curves of the breast respectively. Vertical Projection Profile (VPP) method is used for locating the left and right borders of the breast thermogram image, which detects the parabolic shape of the breast. The results of segmentation are satisfactory. Generalization of this method can be done for various types of breast thermogram images by standardizing the height, background and removal of the noise present in the image.