A novel deep learning method for brain tumor segmentation in magnetic resonance images based on residual units and modified U-net model

Brain tumors are among the most deadly forms of cancer, as the brain is a crucial organ for human activity. Early detection and treatment are key to recovery. An expert’s final decision on tumor diagnosis mainly depends on the evaluation of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) images. However, the traditional manual assessment process is time-consuming, error-prone, and relies on the experience and knowledge of doctors, along with other unstable factors. An automated brain tumor detection system can assist radiologists and internal medicine experts in detecting and diagnosing brain tumors. This study proposes a novel deep learning model that combines residual units with a modified U-Net framework for brain tumor segmentation tasks in brain MR images. In this study, the U-Net-based framework is implemented with a stack of neural units and residual units and uses Leaky Rectified Linear Unit (LReLU) as the model’s activation function. First, neural units are added before the first layer of downsampling and upsampling to enhance feature propagation and reuse. Then, the stacking of residual blocks is applied to achieve deep semantic information extraction for downsampling and pixel classification for upsampling. Finally, a single-layer convolution outputs the predicted segmented images. The experimental results show that the segmentation Dice Similarity Coefficient of this model is 90.79%, and the model demonstrates better segmentation accuracy than other research models.