Fractal analysis of epithelial-connective tissue interface in basal cell carcinoma of the skin

This paper investigates the use of computerized fractal analysis for objective characterization of the complexity of the epithelial-connective tissue interface in basal cell carcinoma and the ability of the technique to quantitatively discriminate among different diagnostic categories. Tumor boundaries were extracted by means of image analysis. The fractal dimension was calculated by using the box-counting method. The results showed that the shape of the boundaries between epithelium and stroma is significantly more complex in infiltrative high risk tumors than in circumscribed low risk ones (p<0.001), with 100% correct classifications. This study shows that the computerized fractal analysis of epithelial-connective tissue interface in basal cell carcinomas can provide an accurate, quantitative, inexpensive technique to help in tumor diagnosis.