A Comparative Study of Meningioma Tumors Segmentation Methods from MR Images

Abstract

Brain tumor segmentation from magnetic resonance (MR) images can have a great impact on improving diagnostics, growth rate prediction, and treatment planning. In this paper, we provide a comparative study of four well-known segmentation algorithms, namely k-means clustering, histogram thresholding (Otsu), fuzzy c-means thresholding, and region growing. For the region growing algorithm, the seed selection process is automated and enhanced by preprocessing the images and approximating the tumor regions using initial clustering and/or thresholding approaches. The evaluation and comparison of the algorithms is conducted using a data-set of T1-Weighted Contrast-Enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain images. Ground truth tumor images were provided by three experienced radiologists and are used in the evaluation process. Results showed that the enhanced region growing method had the highest mean dice similarity coefficient with a score of 0.87, and the lowest under-segmentation rate (17.46%). The fuzzy c-means thresholding method had the lowest over-segmentation rate (0.03%). This study serves as a baseline for other advanced tumor segmentation studies such as the ones using the emergent machine learning approaches.