Immunotherapy efficacy predictive tool for lung adenocarcinoma based on neural network

BACKGROUND: Remarkably, the anti-cancer efficacy of immunotherapy in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) has been demonstrated. However, predicting the beneficiaries of this expensive treatment is still a challenge. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A group of patients (N = 250) diagnosed with LUAD and receiving immunotherapy were retrospectively studied. They were randomly divided into a training dataset (80%) and a test dataset (20%). The training dataset was utilized to train neural network models to predict patients’ objective response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), responders (progression-free survival time > 6 months), and overall survival (OS) possibility, which were validated by both the training and test datasets and packaged into a tool later. RESULTS: In the training dataset, the tool scored 0.9016 area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUC) curve on ORR judgment, 0.8570 on DCR, and 0.8395 on responder prediction. In the test dataset, the tool scored 0.8173 AUC on ORR, 0.8244 on DCR, and 0.8214 on responder determination. As for OS prediction, the tool scored 0.6627 AUC in the training dataset and 0.6357 in the test dataset. CONCLUSIONS: This immunotherapy efficacy predictive tool for LUAD patients based on neural networks could predict their ORR, DCR, and responder well.