Effect of machine learning methods on predicting NSCLC overall survival time based on Radiomics analysis

BACKGROUND: To investigate the effect of machine learning methods on predicting the Overall Survival (OS) for non-small cell lung cancer based on radiomics features analysis. METHODS: A total of 339 radiomic features were extracted from the segmented tumor volumes of pretreatment computed tomography (CT) images. These radiomic features quantify the tumor phenotypic characteristics on the medical images using tumor shape and size, the intensity statistics and the textures. The performance of 5 feature selection methods and 8 machine learning methods were investigated for OS prediction. The predicted performance was evaluated with concordance index between predicted and true OS for the non-small cell lung cancer patients. The survival curves were evaluated by the Kaplan-Meier algorithm and compared by the log-rank tests. RESULTS: The gradient boosting linear models based on Cox’s partial likelihood method using the concordance index feature selection method obtained the best performance (Concordance Index: 0.68, 95% Confidence Interval: 0.62~ 0.74). CONCLUSIONS: The preliminary results demonstrated that certain machine learning and radiomics analysis method could predict OS of non-small cell lung cancer accuracy. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13014-018-1140-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.