Radiomics model for preoperative prediction of 3-year survival-based CT image biomarkers in esophageal cancer

ObjectiveThis work aimed to develop a radiomics nomogram to predict 3-year overall survival of esophageal cancer patients after chemoradiotherapy.MethodsA total of 109 esophageal cancer patients, diagnosed from November 2012 to February 2015, were enrolled in this retrospective study. They were randomly divided into training set (77 cases) and verification set (32 cases). Image standardization was performed prior to feature extraction. And then, about 1670 radiomics features were extracted from the pretreatment diagnostic computed tomography image. A radiomics signature was constructed with the lasso algorithm; then, a radiomics score was calculated to reflect survival probability using the radiomics signature for each patient. A radiomics nomogram was developed by incorporating the radiomics score and clinical factors. A clinical model was constructed using clinical factors only. The performance of the nomogram was assessed with respect to its calibration and discrimination. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis was performed.ResultsSixteen radiomics features were selected to build the radiomics signature. The radiomics nomogram showed better calibration and classification capacity than the clinical model with AUC 0.96 vs. 0.72 for the training cohort, and 0.87 vs. 0.67 for the validation cohort. The model showed good discrimination with a Harrell’s Concordance Index of 0.76 in the training cohort and 0.81 in the validation cohort. Decision curve analysis demonstrated the clinical usefulness of the radiomics nomogram. A significant difference (p value < 0.05; log-rank test) was observed between the survival curves of the nomogram-predicted survival and non-survival groups.ConclusionsThe present study proposed a radiomics-based nomogram involving the radiomics signature and clinical factors. It can be potentially applied in the individual preoperative prediction of 3-year survival in esophageal cancer patients.