Towards Affordable Tumor Segmentation and Visualization for 3D Breast MRI Using SAM2

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Kang, Solha, Kim, Eugene, Vankerschaver, Joris, Ozbulak, Utku
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Kang, Solha
Kim, Eugene
Vankerschaver, Joris
Ozbulak, Utku
author_facet Kang, Solha
Kim, Eugene
Vankerschaver, Joris
Ozbulak, Utku
contents Breast MRI provides high-resolution volumetric imaging critical for tumor assessment and treatment planning, yet manual interpretation of 3D scans remains labor-intensive and subjective. While AI-powered tools hold promise for accelerating medical image analysis, adoption of commercial medical AI products remains limited in low- and middle-income countries due to high license costs, proprietary software, and infrastructure demands. In this work, we investigate whether the Segment Anything Model 2 (SAM2) can be adapted for low-cost, minimal-input 3D tumor segmentation in breast MRI. Using a single bounding box annotation on one slice, we propagate segmentation predictions across the 3D volume using three different slice-wise tracking strategies: top-to-bottom, bottom-to-top, and center-outward. We evaluate these strategies across a large cohort of patients and find that center-outward propagation yields the most consistent and accurate segmentations. Despite being a zero-shot model not trained for volumetric medical data, SAM2 achieves strong segmentation performance under minimal supervision. We further analyze how segmentation performance relates to tumor size, location, and shape, identifying key failure modes. Our results suggest that general-purpose foundation models such as SAM2 can support 3D medical image analysis with minimal supervision, offering an accessible and affordable alternative for resource-constrained settings.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_23272
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Towards Affordable Tumor Segmentation and Visualization for 3D Breast MRI Using SAM2
Kang, Solha
Kim, Eugene
Vankerschaver, Joris
Ozbulak, Utku
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Artificial Intelligence
Breast MRI provides high-resolution volumetric imaging critical for tumor assessment and treatment planning, yet manual interpretation of 3D scans remains labor-intensive and subjective. While AI-powered tools hold promise for accelerating medical image analysis, adoption of commercial medical AI products remains limited in low- and middle-income countries due to high license costs, proprietary software, and infrastructure demands. In this work, we investigate whether the Segment Anything Model 2 (SAM2) can be adapted for low-cost, minimal-input 3D tumor segmentation in breast MRI. Using a single bounding box annotation on one slice, we propagate segmentation predictions across the 3D volume using three different slice-wise tracking strategies: top-to-bottom, bottom-to-top, and center-outward. We evaluate these strategies across a large cohort of patients and find that center-outward propagation yields the most consistent and accurate segmentations. Despite being a zero-shot model not trained for volumetric medical data, SAM2 achieves strong segmentation performance under minimal supervision. We further analyze how segmentation performance relates to tumor size, location, and shape, identifying key failure modes. Our results suggest that general-purpose foundation models such as SAM2 can support 3D medical image analysis with minimal supervision, offering an accessible and affordable alternative for resource-constrained settings.
title Towards Affordable Tumor Segmentation and Visualization for 3D Breast MRI Using SAM2
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.23272