Combination of Peri- and Intratumoral Radiomic Features on Baseline CT Scans Predicts Response to Chemotherapy in Lung Adenocarcinoma

Purpose To identify the role of radiomics texture features both within and outside the nodule in predicting (a) time to progression (TTP) and overall survival (OS) as well as (b) response to chemotherapy in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Materials and Methods Data in a total of 125 patients who had been treated with pemetrexed-based platinum doublet chemotherapy at Cleveland Clinic were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were divided randomly into two sets with the constraint that there were an equal number of responders and nonresponders in the training set. The training set comprised 53 patients with NSCLC, and the validation set comprised 72 patients. A machine learning classifier trained with radiomic texture features extracted from intra- and peritumoral regions of non–contrast-enhanced CT images was used to predict response to chemotherapy. The radiomic risk-score signature was generated by using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator with the Cox regression model; association of the radiomic signature with TTP and OS was also evaluated. Results A combination of radiomic features in conjunction with a quadratic discriminant analysis classifier yielded a mean maximum area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.82 ± 0.09 (standard deviation) in the training set and a corresponding AUC of 0.77 in the independent testing set. The radiomics signature was also significantly associated with TTP (hazard ratio [HR], 2.8; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.95, 4.00; P < .0001) and OS (HR, 2.35; 95% CI: 1.41, 3.94; P = .0011). Additionally, decision curve analysis demonstrated that in terms of clinical usefulness, the radiomics signature had a higher overall net benefit in prediction of high-risk patients to receive treatment than the clinicopathologic measurements. Conclusion This study suggests that radiomic texture features extracted from within and around the nodule on baseline CT scans are (a) predictive of response to chemotherapy and (b) associated with TTP and OS for patients with NSCLC. Keywords: Lung, Prognosis, Radiology-pathology integration © RSNA, 2019 Supplemental material is available for this article.