ABSTRACT
Breast carcinomas are a leading cause of death for women throughout the world. It is second or third most common malignancy among women in developing countries (Rajendra, Ng, Y. H. Chang, and Kaw, 2008). The incidence of breast cancer is increasing globally and the disease remains a significant public health problem. Statistics from the National Cancer Institute of Canada show that the lifetime probability of a woman developing breast cancer is one in nine, with a lifetime probability of one in 27 of death due to the disease, also about 385,000 of the 1.2 million women diagnosed with breast cancer each year occur in Asia (Organization, 2005). Because only localized cancer is deemed to be treatable and curable, as opposed to metastasized cancer, early detection of breast cancer is of utmost importance. Mammography is, at present, the best available tool for early detection of breast cancer. However, the sensitivity of screening mammography is influenced by image quality and the radiologists level of expertise. Contrary to masses and calcifications, the presence of architectural distortion is usually not accompanied by a site of increased density in mammograms. The detection of architectural distortion is performed by a radiologist through the identification of subtle signs of abnormality, such as the presence of spiculations and distortion of the normal oriented texture pattern of the breast.
