Development of a Deep Learning Model for Malignant Small Bowel Tumors Survival: A SEER-Based Study

Background This study aims to explore a deep learning (DL) algorithm for developing a prognostic model and perform survival analyses in SBT patients. Methods The demographic and clinical features of patients with SBTs were extracted from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database. We randomly split the samples into the training set and the validation set at 7:3. Cox proportional hazards (Cox-PH) analysis and the DeepSurv algorithm were used to develop models. The performance of the Cox-PH and DeepSurv models was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic curves, calibration curves, C-statistics and decision-curve analysis (DCA). A Kaplan–Meier (K–M) survival analysis was performed for further explanation on prognostic effect of the Cox-PH model. Results The multivariate analysis demonstrated that seven variables were associated with cancer-specific survival (CSS) (all p < 0.05). The DeepSurv model showed better performance than the Cox-PH model (C-index: 0.871 vs. 0.866). The calibration curves and DCA revealed that the two models had good discrimination and calibration. Moreover, patients with ileac malignancy and N2 stage disease were not responding to surgery according to the K–M analysis. Conclusions This study reported a DeepSurv model that performed well in CSS in SBT patients. It might offer insights into future research to explore more DL algorithms in cohort studies.