Combining Multifractal Analyses of Digital Mammograms and Infrared Thermograms to Assist in Early Breast Cancer Diagnosis

We used a 1D wavelet transform modulus maxima (WTMM) method to analyze the temporal fluctuations ofbreast skin temperature recorded with an infrared (IR) camera from a panel of patients with breast cancer. This studyshows that the multifractal complexity of temperature fluctuations observed in healthy breasts, is lost in the region of themalignant tumor in cancerous breasts. Then, we applied the 2D WTMM method to analyze the spatial fluctuations ofbreast density in the X-ray mammograms of the same patients. Compared to the correlated roughness fluctuationsobserved in the healthy areas, some clear loss of correlations is detected in malignant tumor foci. These physiological andarchitectural changes in the environment of malignant tumors detected in both thermograms and mammograms open newperspectives in computer-aided multifractal methods to assist in early breast cancer diagnosis