Shape-Based Clustering and Classification of Breast Microcalcifications in Micro-CT Images

Abstract

This paper presents a novel classification approach for microcalcifications extracted from core biopsy tissue samples digitized using micro-CT, a high-resolution 3D imaging modality. Microcalcifications are tiny spots of calcium that may occur in the female breast. Although they are common in healthy woman, they are often an early sign of breast cancer. In case of suspiciousness, a biopsy is conducted and the extracted tissue is pathologically analyzed for the presence of cancer cells. The calcifications themselves however are mostly not analyzed. As a result, there is a ground truth for the tissue samples but not for the individual calcifications. Therefore, this paper presents an approach where the calcifications are first classified according to shape-based clusters before predicting a label for the tissue samples.