Image Processing and Cancer Detection

"Chemo-prevention" vs. Chemotherapy

The following table presents a range of values gathered from healthy cells (top) as contrasted with cells that appear normal, but are harvested from tumor-containing tissue (bottom).

cell nuclei from normal prostate tissue -0.757 -0.671 -0.459 -0.390 -0.337 -0.298 cell nuclei from normal-appearing tissue of a prostate with adenocarcinoma +0.767 +0.784 +0.864 +1.080 +1.110 +1.680

Nuclei ordered by value of discriminate function

A graphical representation of these values dramatically illustrates the difference between normal cells from healthy tissue and normal cells from tissue with lesions.

MAC expressions in tissue of "normal" appearance as a function of distance from a lesion

When biopsies must be performed on internal organs, a suspected lesion may be difficult to access, requiring several attempts before a conclusive sample is obtained. An understanding of this "pre-cancerous" phenomenon greatly simplifies the biopsy process. Since cancer-induced changes can be detected in cells not yet developed into tumors, the sample itself does not have to come directly from a lesion to provide useful diagnostic information.