Advanced Ultrasound in Diagnosis and Therapy ›› 2026, Vol. 10 ›› Issue (1): 29-41.doi: 10.26599/AUDT.2026.250056

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Advances in Breast Ultrasound Segmentation and Classification

Fu Lijiaa, Li Nab, Liao Zilingc, Lin Yanpinga, Li Zhaojund, Li Fane,*()   

  1. aSchool of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, PR China
    bSchool of Health Science and Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, PR China
    cDepartment of Radiology, Chengdu Seventh People's Hospital, Sichuan, PR China
    dDepartment of Ultrasound, Children's Hospital of Shanghai, Shanghai Jiao tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, PR China
    eDepartment of Ultrasound, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, PR China
  • Received:2025-12-08 Revised:2026-01-07 Accepted:2026-01-18 Online:2026-03-31 Published:2026-03-30
  • Contact: Department of Ultrasound, Shanghai Chest Hospital of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 241 West Huaihai Road, Shanghai, 200030, China; Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 227 South Chongqing Road, Shanghai 200025, China, e-mail: medicineli@163.com(F L),

Abstract:

Breast cancer is one of the most prevalent cancers affecting women worldwide. Ultrasound is extensively utilized for clinical screening and diagnosis due to its affordability, absence of radiation, and rapid imaging capability. To enhance diagnostic accuracy, computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems have been developed, with segmentation and classification being key techniques. This review systematically examines 62 recent studies on breast ultrasound segmentation and classification, covering various imaging techniques such as B-mode, elastography, 3D ultrasound, contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS), and color Doppler. specifically, we detail the challenges and deep-learning-based methods associated with these modalities. Comparative analysis reveals that current deep learning approaches typically achieve Dice coefficients ranging from 0.79 to 0.91 for segmentation and classification accuracies exceeding 88.2% in multimodal settings. Finally, this article identifies critical research gaps, including data scarcity and model interpretability, and discusses future directions such as multimodal fusion and explainable AI (XAI) to further improve clinical applicability.

Key words: Breast cancer; Breast ultrasound; Image segmentation; Image classification; Computer-aided diagnosis