Prediction of pathological complete response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in locally advanced breast cancer by using a deep learning model with (18)F-FDG PET/CT

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study is 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging by using deep learning method are predictive for pathological complete response pCR after Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in locally advanced breast cancer (LABC). INTRODUCTION: NAC is the standard treatment for locally advanced breast cancer (LABC). Pathological complete response (pCR) after NAC is considered a good predictor of disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS).Therefore, there is a need to develop methods that can predict the pCR at the time of diagnosis. METHODS: This article was designed as a retrospective chart study.For the convolutional neural network model, a total of 355 PET/CT images of 31 patients were used. All patients had primary breast surgery after completing NAC. RESULTS: Pathological complete response was obtained in a total of 9 patients. The study results show that our proposed deep convolutional neural networks model achieved a remarkable success with an accuracy of 84.79% to predict pathological complete response. CONCLUSION: It was concluded that deep learning methods can predict breast cancer treatment.