MRI-based classification of brain tumor type and grade using SVM-RFE

The objective of this study is to investigate the use of pattern classification methods for distinguishing different types of brain tumors, such as primary gliomas from metastases, and also for grading of gliomas. A computer-assisted classification method combining conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and perfusion MRI is developed and used for differential diagnosis. The proposed scheme consists of several steps including ROI definition, feature extraction, feature selection and classification. The extracted features include tumor shape and intensity characteristics as well as rotation invariant texture features. Features subset selection is performed using support vector machines (SVMs) with recursive feature elimination. The binary SVM classification accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity, assessed by leave-one-out cross-validation on 102 brain tumors, are respectively 87%, 89%, and 79% for discrimination of metastases from gliomas, and 87%, 83%, and 96% for discrimination of high grade from low grade neoplasms. Multi-class classification is also performed via a one-versus-all voting scheme.