Multimodal Imaging under Artificial Intelligence Algorithm for the Diagnosis of Liver Cancer and Its Relationship with Expressions of EZH2 and p57.

Objective: It aimed to explore the diagnostic efficacy of multimodal ultrasound images based on mask region with convolutional neural network (M-RCNN) segmentation algorithm for small liver cancer and analyze the expression of zeste gene enhancer homolog 2 (EZH2) and p57 (P57 Kip2) genes in cancer cells.

Methods: A total of 100 patients suspected of small liver cancer were randomly divided into Doppler group (color Doppler ultrasound examination), contrast group (contrast ultrasound examination), elastic group (ultrasound elastography examination), and multimodal group (combined examination of the three methods), with 25 patients in each group. Images were processed by the M-RCNN segmentation algorithm. The results of the pathological biopsy were used to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of the four methods. The liver tissues were then extracted and divided into observation group 1 (lesion tissue specimen), observation group 2 (liver tissue around cancer lesion), and control group (normal liver tissue), and the expression activities of EZH2 and p57 genes in the three groups were analyzed.

Results: The accuracy of M-RCNN (97.23%) and average precision (AP) (71.90%) were higher than other methods ( < 0.05). Sensitivity (88.87%), specific degree of consistency (90.91%), accuracy (89.47%), and consistence (0.68) of the multimodal group were better than the other three groups ( < 0.05). Low and medium differentiated cancer tissues had an irregular shape, unclear boundary, uneven internal echo, unchanged/enhanced posterior echo, blood flow level 1∼2, elastic score 4∼5, and enhancement mode fast in and fast out. The positive expression rate of EZH2 in observation group 1 (75.95%) was higher than that in the other two groups, the positive expression rate of p57 in observation group 1 (80.79%) was lower than that in the other two groups, and the positive expression rate of p57 in the highly differentiated cancer foci (80.79%) was significantly lower than that in the middle and low differentiated cancer foci ( < 0.05).

Conclusions: M-RCNN segmentation algorithm had a better segmentation effect. Multimodal ultrasound had a good effect on the benign and malignant diagnosis of small liver cancer and had a high clinical application value. The high expression of EZH2 and the decreased expression of p57 can promote the occurrence of small hepatocellular carcinoma, and the deficiency of the P57 gene was related to the low differentiation of cancer cells.