Computerized Classification Method for Differentiating Between Benign and Malignant Lesions on Breast MR Images

Contrast-enhanced breast MRI has been shown to have very high sensitivity in the detection of breast cancers. A new computerized classification method for differentiating between benign and malignant lesions on breast MRIs was developed. This method was based on temporal feature analysis. We experimented with a set of thresholds of the contrast uptake and washout speed to automatically determine suspicious malignant areas. An angiogenesis map was generated to indicate suspicious malignant areas by color. The results obtained from the retrospective analysis on 64 malignant and 29 benign breast lesions showed that our method achieved 90.5% (57/63) sensitivity in detecting malignant lesions, and it correctly classified 55% (16/29) benign lesions as benign. The study results demonstrated the effectiveness of this temporal feature analysis method for the detection of malignant lesions and its performance in delineating malignant lesions from benign lesions.