Latest News Archive
Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
08 May 2018
Photo Supplied
Over 650 degrees, diplomas, and certificates will be conferred upon deserving Kovsies when the
Qwaqwa Campus hosts its
graduation ceremonies on Thursday 10 May 2018.
Graduands at both the morning and afternoon sessions will be addressed by the Honourable Acting Judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal,
Mr Justice Tati Makgoka.
All degrees in the Faculties of Economic and Management Sciences and Education will be conferred during the morning session. The Faculties of the Humanities and Natural and Agricultural Sciences will have their turn during the afternoon session.
Among the degrees to be conferred will be seven PhDs and seven master’s degrees in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, and one PhD in English in the Faculty of the Humanities.
Three members of the current and seven from the 2016/2017 Student Representative Council (SRC) will be graduating.
Mathematical methods used to detect and classify breast cancer masses
2016-08-10
Examples of Acho’s breast mass
segmentation identification
Breast cancer is the leading cause of female mortality in developing countries. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the low survival rates in developing countries are mainly due to the lack of early detection and adequate diagnosis programs.
Seeing the picture more clearly
Susan Acho from the University of the Free State’s Department of Medical Physics, breast cancer research focuses on using mathematical methods to delineate and classify breast masses. Advancements in medical research have led to remarkable progress in breast cancer detection, however, according to Acho, the methods of diagnosis currently available commercially, lack a detailed finesse in accurately identifying the boundaries of breast mass lesions.
Inspiration drawn from pioneer
Drawing inspiration from the Mammography Computer Aided Diagnosis Development and Implementation (CAADI) project, which was the brainchild Prof William Rae, Head of the department of Medical Physics, Acho’s MMedSc thesis titled ‘Segmentation and Quantitative Characterisation of Breast Masses Imaged using Digital Mammography’ investigates classical segmentation algorithms, texture features and classification of breast masses in mammography. It is a rare research topic in South Africa.
Characterisation of breast masses, involves delineating and analysing the breast mass region on a mammogram in order to determine its shape, margin and texture composition. Computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) program detects the outline of the mass lesion, and uses this information together with its texture features to determine the clinical traits of the mass. CAD programs mark suspicious areas for second look or areas on a mammogram that the radiologist might have overlooked. It can act as an independent double reader of a mammogram in institutions where there is a shortage of trained mammogram readers.
Light at the end of the tunnel
Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies among females in South Africa. “The challenge is being able to apply these mathematical methods in the medical field to help find solutions to specific medical problems, and that’s what I hope my research will do,” she says.
By using mathematics, physics and digital imaging to understand breast masses on mammograms, her research bridges the gap between these fields to provide algorithms which are applicable in medical image interpretation.