A system and method for automatically staging regional lymph nodes under the TNM classification system using textural analyses of endoscopic ultrasound images. N stage for a lymph node is determined by analyzing the organization of the texture of a region corresponding to the node on a digitized ultrasound image. Specifically, Haralick's difference entropy and correlation textural features are calculated and compared to predetermined reference values to predict whether the lymph node is benign or malignant. Also, the cross-sectional area of the node is determined and used to make an N staging determination. An application of the present invention is staging of esophageal lymph nodes in the diagnosis and treatment of esophageal carcinoma using endoscopic ultrasound images.
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