Full text
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| Author(s): |
Fábio José Ayres
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Master's Dissertation |
| Press: | São Paulo. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola Politécnica (EP/BC) |
| Defense date: | 2001-08-21 |
| Examining board members: |
Marcelo Knorich Zuffo;
Vicente Odone Filho;
Rangaraj Mandayam Rangayan
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| Advisor: | Marcelo Knorich Zuffo |
| Abstract | |
Neuroblastoma is the most common extracranial solid malignant tumor in children; it is the third most common malignancy of childhood. Advances in radiology have made possible the detection and accurate staging of the disease. Nevertheless, there is no imaging method available at present that can go beyond detection and qualitative analysis, towards quantitative analysis, towards quantitative assessment of the histological composition of the primary tumor mass in neuroblastoma. Such quantitative analysis could provide important information for the radiologist and the physician that could lead to better treatment and follow-up, and even to the avoidance of delayed surgery. The problem that we investigate in the present report is the improvement of the analysis of the primary tumor mass in patients with advanced neuroblastoma, using X-ray computed tomography (CT) exams. To achieve this goal, we propose a methodology for the estimation of the histological content of the mass that comprises a technique for semi-automatic segmentation of the primary tumor mass in CT images of neuroblastoma and a statistical method to estimate, from segmented CT images, the histological composition of the primary tumor. The results of the method will later be compared with the results of histological analysis of surgically resected masses. (AU) | |