Mammographic Lesions Discrimination Based on Fractal Dimension as an Indicator

In this paper it is investigated how fractal properties can be used to characterize a mammographic lesion. The idea is suggested by the similarity between the breast tissue and a synthetically generated fractal image. Fractals are pertinent tools to describe the complexity of a shape; meanwhile, radiologists use the complexity of the lesion´s contour to classify the abnormality. Tests on 30 cases mammographic lesions shows that fractal dimension of the lesion´s contour is higher in cancer cases and lower in benign cases. This could be an important observation in order to classify BI-RADS 4 lesions, with no need of further examination (biopsy).