Modified Gabor Filter (MGF) Image Enhancement Approach for Early Detection of Lung Cancer

Abstract

Lung cancer continues to be the foremost cause of death in both women and men. Worldwide, lung cancer kills over 1 million peoples a year. The major cause of lung cancer is smoking. In India each year it is estimated that about 80% of male lung cancer deaths and 70% of lung cancer deaths are caused by smoking. Undoubtedly, lung cancer is a major threat to human beings and also a widespread disease which constitutes a major public health problem. Other possible factors for lung cancer are increased air pollution by dusts and gases released by industry, automobile traffic etc. Hence, lung cancer detection is one of the major needs of the day. Several researchers developed Image Processing Techniques (IPT) for the detection of Lung Cancer [, , , , , , , ]. Earlier researchers employed the methods like Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), Auto Enhancement Algorithm (AEA), Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), for image enhancement. These approaches are time consuming and less accurate. Some of the researchers are also used Kalman Filters, Hessian Based Filters (HBF), but these filters have drawbacks like, varying contrast; poor and non-uniform response for images of varying sizes [, ]. Some of other researchers used interpolation techniques, which is complex and time consuming []. So, to overcome the drawbacks of these earlier approaches, a new image enhancement technique is proposed with modifications in Gabor Filters which will help in early and efficient detection of lung cancer. This Modified Gabor Filter (MGF) approach has been validated using CT (Computer Tomography) and X-ray lung images which are collected from a hospital and they are analysed. The results obtained are comparable with real time analysis of medical practitioners. Hence, this new technique for Image Enhancement using MGF Approach can be employed for early detection of lung cancer and this technique is also suitable for development of new medical equipment’s for better detection of lung cancer.