IMPLEMENTATION OF STOLZ’S ALGORITHM FOR MELANOMA DETECTION

Abstract: Among the different types of skin cancers, Melanoma is one of the most threatening type of cancer. This cancer is most often caused by ultraviolet radiation from the sun which causes unrepaired DNA damage to skin cells which further develops into cancerous tumours. ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬It affects the melanocytes, which are skin cells containing a pigment called melanin which is responsible for the colour of the skin, hence the name melanoma. If melanoma is recognised in the early stages it is proven to be curable. If not, the cancer advances and spreads to all other parts of the body and becomes incurable leading to death. Traditional method of analysing melanoma is biopsy, which is a painful and time consuming process. In this paper we have in detail studied the ABCD (Asymmetry, Border, Colour and Diameter) method and implemented a code using MATLAB for automatic melanoma detection using Dermoscopic images. Finally the Total Dermoscopic Score (TDS) is calculated based on which if the cancer is melanoma or not is decided. A brief study about different algorithms such as 7-point checklist, Menzies and pattern analysis which is based on computer aided automatic melanoma detection using image processing is also discussed.

Keywords: Melanoma, ultraviolet, tumor, biopsy, asymmetry, computer aided.