Fig. 2: Workflow of development and clinical application of HEROVision.

a A real-world clinical decision-making scenario for rHCC. b Construction of HEROVision models for TA and SR using the 1stTA and 1stSR datasets, respectively. c Clinical application of HEROVision-TA and -SR models. Cross-stratifications were executed by employing HEROVision-TA and -SR models on CEUS and MRI from exchanged patient cohorts, respectively. Subsequently, individualized prediction of PFS was compared between the original and re-stratified patient subgroups for each of the 2ndTA and 2ndSR datasets. iHCC initial hepatocellular carcinoma, rHCC recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma, CEUS contrast-enhanced ultrasound, MRI magnetic resonance imaging, TA thermal ablation, RHR repeat hepatic resection, SR surgical resection, CAD computer-aided diagnosis, T2WI T2-weighted imaging, DWI diffusion-weighted imaging, PFS progression-free survival, HEROVision hepatocellular carcinoma optimizing treatments with Vision Transformer network.