Abstract: Lung cancer patients’ chances of survival can increase with early detection. For the diagnosis of lung cancer, precise lung nodule identification in computed tomography (CT) images is crucial. The variety of the lung nodules and the complexity of the surroundings, however, have made robust nodule identification a challenging problem. To address this challenge, the Extensible Hunt Optimization-based deep Convolutional Neural Network classifier (EHO-deep CNN), is developed in this research for detecting the lung nodules present in the CT images. The proposed model in which the preprocessing is performed through the median filter to eliminate the artifacts in the image. Specifically, the images are segmented by adopting the centralized superpixels segmentation-based iterative clustering (CSSBIC) technique that enhances the accuracy of segmentation. The proposed approach relies on the GLCM and the VGG16-based feature extraction to explicate the discrimination of the lung nodule features. In addition, the retrieved features are combined and fed forwarded to the Deep CNN classifier that is optimally tuned via the EHO algorithm. The EHO algorithm is developed by fusing the fitness function of Border collie dogs with the hunting characteristics of Dingo to enhance convergence rate and performance. The proposed EHO-deep CNN is reported in terms of accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity values as 98.13%, 98.98%, and 97.28% when measuring TP 80 for the LIDC-IDRI dataset and 96.09%, 96.70%, and 95.48% for measuring k-fold 10. Further, implementing the suggested model obtains the values of 95.34%, 92.88%, and 97.80% for the LUNA 16 dataset when measuring TP 80 and 98.21%, 98.06%, 98.35% when measuring k-fold 10, which outperforms other existing techniques in effectiveness.
