Intensity independent texture analysis in screening mammograms

Image texture features for detecting malignant masses in screening mammograms are proposed that are independent of background intensity mean and variation. Subtracting local means and dividing by local standard deviation reveals linear structures of approximately 0.7 mm width in screening mammograms. A simple texture feature calculated from on this derived image is used to demonstrate that texture information associated with the location of cancer is retained in the mean and standard deviation normalized image. Such texture features have the potential to provide evidence of malignancy that better complements intensity based features for detecting breast cancer in screening mammograms.