A radiomics nomogram for preoperatively predicting prognosis of patients in hepatocellular carcinoma

Background: Increasing studies have indicated that biomarkers based on quantitative radiomics features are related to clinical prognosis across a range of cancer types, but the association between radiomics and prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is unclear. We aimed to develop and validate a radiomics nomogram for the preoperative prediction of prognosis for patients with HCC undergoing partial hepatectomy. Methods: In total, 177 patients were randomly divided into training (n=113) and validation (n=64) cohorts. A total number of 980 radiomics features were extracted from computed tomography images. And the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator algorithm was used to select the optimal features and build a radiomics signature in the training set. Besides, a radiomics nomogram was developed using multivariate regression analysis. The performance of the radiomics nomogram was estimated regarding its discrimination and calibration abilities, and clinical usefulness. Results: The radiomics signature was significantly associated with disease-free survival (DFS) (P<0.001 and P=0.00013, respectively) and overall survival (OS) (both P<0.0001) in two cohorts. Additionally, the radiomics nomogram showed good discrimination calibration, and clinical usefulness both in the training and validation cohorts. Conclusions: The proposed radiomics nomogram showed excellent performance for the individualized and non-invasive estimation of DFS, which may help clinicians better identify patients with HBV-related HCC who can benefit from the surgery.