A Genetic Algorithm Based Feature Selection for Classification of Brain MRI Scan Images Using Random Forest Classifier

A brain tumour is a mass of tissue that is formed by a gradual addition of anomalous cells and it is important to classify brain tumours from the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for treatment. Magnetic Resonance Imaging is a useful imaging technique that is widely used by physicians to investigate different pathologies. After a long clinical research, it is proved to be harmless. Improvement in computing power has introduced Computer Aided Diagnosis (CAD) which can efficiently work in an automated environment. Diagnosis or classification accuracy of such a CAD system is associated with the selection of features. This paper proposes an enhanced brain MRI image classifier targeting two main objectives, the first is to achieve maximum classification accuracy and second is to minimize the number of features for classification. Feature selection is performed using Genetic Algorithm (GA) while classifiers used are Random forest Classifier.