Abstract

Malignant melanoma is a skin tumour typified by high mortality rates when not diagnosed and excised in its earliest stages. Preoperative diagnostic accuracy may be improved through the development of computerised systems which accurately quantify features indicative of this cancer. One such feature is boundary contour asymmetry, which is typically measured across a skin lesion's major and minor axes of symmetry. In this paper techniques for detection of skin lesion asymmetry are discussed, and the viability of integrating Fourier descriptors into a shape asymmetry quantifier is investigated. It is concluded that Fourier descriptors facilitate accurate isolation and ranking of a lesion's symmetry axes and provide an approach which could easily be integrated into new or existing diagnostic procedures.