Computer-aided diagnosis for lung cancer using waterwheel plant algorithm with deep learning

Abstract Lung cancer (LC) is a life-threatening and dangerous disease all over the world. However, earlier diagnoses and treatment can save lives. Earlier diagnoses of malevolent cells in the lungs responsible for oxygenating the human body and expelling carbon dioxide due to significant procedures are critical. Even though a computed tomography (CT) scan is the best imaging approach in the healthcare sector, it is challenging for physicians to identify and interpret the tumour from CT scans. LC diagnosis in CT scan using artificial intelligence (AI) can help radiologists in earlier diagnoses, enhance performance, and decrease false negatives. Deep learning (DL) for detecting lymph node contribution on histopathological slides has become popular due to its great significance in patient diagnoses and treatment. This study introduces a computer-aided diagnosis for LC by utilizing the Waterwheel Plant Algorithm with DL (CADLC-WWPADL) approach. The primary aim of the CADLC-WWPADL approach is to classify and identify the existence of LC on CT scans. The CADLC-WWPADL method uses a lightweight MobileNet model for feature extraction. Besides, the CADLC-WWPADL method employs WWPA for the hyperparameter tuning process. Furthermore, the symmetrical autoencoder (SAE) model is utilized for classification. An investigational evaluation is performed to demonstrate the significant detection outputs of the CADLC-WWPADL technique. An extensive comparative study reported that the CADLC-WWPADL technique effectively performs with other models with a maximum accuracy of 99.05% under the benchmark CT image dataset.