Efficient segmentation methods for tumor detection in MRI images

Brain tumor extraction and its analysis are challenging tasks in medical image processing because brain image and its structure is complicated that can be analyzed only by expert radiologists. Segmentation plays an important role in the processing of medical images. MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) has become a particularly useful medical diagnostic tool for diagnosis of brain and other medical images. This paper presents a comparative study of three segmentation methods implemented for tumor detection. The methods include k-means clustering with watershed segmentation algorithm, optimized k-means clustering with genetic algorithm and optimized c- means clustering with genetic algorithm. Traditional k-means algorithm is sensitive to the initial cluster centers. Genetic c-means and k-means clustering techniques are used to detect tumor in MRI of brain images. At the end of process the tumor is extracted from the MR image and its exact position and the shape are determined. The experimental results indicate that genetic c-means not only eliminate the over-segmentation problem, but also provide fast and efficient clustering results.