Methods for the segmentation and classification of breast ultrasound images: a review

Abstract

Purpose: Breast ultrasound (BUS) is one of the imaging modalities for the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. However, the segmentation and classification of BUS images is a challenging task. In recent years, several methods for segmenting and classifying BUS images have been studied. These methods use BUS datasets for evaluation. In addition, semantic segmentation algorithms have gained prominence for segmenting medical images.

Methods: In this paper, we examined different methods for segmenting and classifying BUS images. Popular datasets used to evaluate BUS images and semantic segmentation algorithms were examined. Several segmentation and classification papers were selected for analysis and review. Both conventional and semantic methods for BUS segmentation were reviewed.

Results: Commonly used methods for BUS segmentation were depicted in a graphical representation, while other conventional methods for segmentation were equally elucidated.

Conclusions: We presented a review of the segmentation and classification methods for tumours detected in BUS images. This review paper selected old and recent studies on segmenting and classifying tumours in BUS images.

Keywords: Benign tumour; Breast tumour segmentation and classification; Breast ultrasound (BUS); Malignant tumour; Segmentation performance analysis.