(18)F-FDG PET/CT radiomics for prediction of lymphovascular invasion in patients with early stage non-small cell lung cancer

OBJECTIVE: To explore a prediction model for lymphovascular invasion (LVI) on cT(1–2)N(0)M(0) radiologic solid non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) based on a 2-deoxy-2[(18)F]fluoro-D-glucose ([(18)F]F-FDG) positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) radiomics analysis. METHODS: The present work retrospectively included 148 patients receiving surgical resection and verified pathologically with cT(1–2)N(0)M(0) radiologic solid NSCLC. The cases were randomized into training or validation sets in the ratio of 7:3. PET and CT images were used to select optimal radiomics features. Three radiomics predictive models incorporating CT, PET, as well as PET/CT images radiomics features (CT-RS, PET-RS, PET/CT-RS) were developed using logistic analyses. Furthermore, model performance was evaluated by ROC analysis for predicting LVI status. Model performance was evaluated in terms of discrimination, calibration along with clinical utility. Kaplan-Meier curves were employed to analyze the outcome of LVI. RESULTS: The ROC analysis demonstrated that PET/CT-RS (AUCs were 0.773 and 0.774 for training and validation sets) outperformed both CT-RS(AUCs, 0.727 and 0.752) and PET-RS(AUCs, 0.715 and 0.733). A PET/CT radiology nomogram (PET/CT-model) was developed to estimate LVI; the model demonstrated conspicuous prediction performance for training (C-index, 0.766; 95%CI, 0.728–0.805) and validation sets (C-index, 0.774; 95%CI, 0.702–0.846). Besides, decision curve analysis and calibration curve showed that PET/CT-model provided clinically beneficial effects. Disease-free survival and overall survival varied significantly between LVI and non-LVI cases (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The PET/CT radiomics models could effectively predict LVI on early stage radiologic solid lung cancer and provide support for clinical treatment decisions.