Recent Advances in Intelligent Imaging Systems for Early Prediction of Colorectal Cancer: A Perspective

In this era, diseases related to the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, specifically colorectal cancer (CRC), significantly threaten human life. CRC is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Early detection of the precursor of CRC, known as a polyp, is of great significance. Colonoscopy is considered as a gold standard for early detection of CRC. However, during the exploration of the colorectum, there is a significant chance of polyp miss-rates due to human errors and huge interclass and intraclass variation of polyps in terms of size, shape, color, scale, and texture. The miss-detected polyps have a high potential to develop into CRC. So, several computer-aided intelligent imaging techniques have been developed for the early prediction of CRC. An automatic polyp detection method plays a vital role in the survival prediction of CRC patients and is highly demanding in clinical practice. This chapter is an attempt to highlight the importance of intelligent medical imaging systems for decision making and management of the disease. A detailed overview of various insights of CRC is described in this chapter. We have also given a detailed analysis of various intelligent techniques proposed by different researchers in the early detection of CRC.