Classification of masses in digital mammograms using Biogeography-based optimization technique

Breast cancer is a leading cause of death in women in both developed and developing countries. Design and development of computer-based systems can assist radiologists in the effective treatment of breast cancer. For the design of an efficient classification system, efficient feature selection techniques must be used to reduce complexity of feature space in digital mammogram classification. The proposed methodology aims to explore use of Biogeography-based optimization to select a subset of features. Adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system and artificial neural network are employed to evaluate fitness of the selected features. The features selected are used to train and test adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system and artificial neural network classifiers. The experiment employed over 651 mammograms. The classification results shows that Biogeography-based optimization with adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system is superior to Biogeography-based optimization with artificial neural network. Adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system classifier achieve an accuracy of 98.92% with sensitivity of 99.10%, specificity of 98.72% and area under curve AZ = 0.999 ± 0.000. Outcomes achieved with the proposed Biogeography-based optimization with adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system are far better as compared to some recent work.