Predicting Progression-Free Survival Using MRI-Based Radiomics for Patients With Nonmetastatic Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

• Main Authors: Hesong Shen, Yu Wang, Daihong Liu, Rongfei Lv, Yuanying Huang, Chao Peng, Shixi Jiang, Ying Wang, Yongpeng He, Xiaosong Lan, Hong Huang, Jianqing Sun, Jiuquan Zhang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-05-01
• Series: Frontiers in Oncology
• Subjects: radiomics; prediction; progression-free survival; nasopharyngeal carcinoma; magnetic resonance imaging
• Online Access: https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fonc.2020.00618/full

Objectives: This study aimed to explore the predictive value of MRI-based radiomic model for progression-free survival (PFS) in nonmetastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).Methods: A total of 327 nonmetastatic NPC patients [training cohort (n = 230) and validation cohort (n = 97)] were enrolled. The clinical and MRI data were collected. The least absolute shrinkage selection operator (LASSO) and recursive feature elimination (RFE) were used to select radiomic features. Five models [Model 1: clinical data, Model 2: overall stage, Model 3: radiomics, Model 4: radiomics + overall stage, Model 5: radiomics + overall stage + Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) DNA] were constructed. The prognostic performances of these models were evaluated by Harrell's concordance index (C-index). The Kaplan–Meier method was applied for the survival analysis.Results: Model 5 incorporating radiomics, overall stage, and EBV DNA yielded the highest C-indices for predicting PFS in comparison with Model 1, Model 2, Model 3, and Model 4 (training cohorts: 0.805 vs. 0.766 vs. 0.749 vs. 0.641 vs. 0.563, validation cohorts: 0.874 vs. 0.839 vs. 836 vs. 0.689 vs. 0.456). The survival curve showed that the high-risk group yielded a lower PFS than the low-risk group.Conclusions: The model incorporating radiomics, overall stage, and EBV DNA showed better performance for predicting PFS in nonmetastatic NPC patients.