Preoperative Prediction of Axillary Lymph Node Metastasis in Breast Cancer Using Mammography-Based Radiomics Method

It is difficult to accurately assess axillary lymph nodes metastasis and the diagnosis of axillary lymph nodes in patients with breast cancer is invasive and has low-sensitivity preoperatively. This study aims to develop a mammography-based radiomics nomogram for the preoperative prediction of ALN metastasis in patients with breast cancer. This study enrolled 147 patients with clinicopathologically confirmed breast cancer and preoperative mammography. Features were extracted from each patient’s mammography images. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression method was used to select features and build a signature in the primary cohort. The performance of the signature was assessed using support vector machines. We developed a nomogram by incorporating the signature with the clinicopathologic risk factors. The nomogram performance was estimated by its calibration ability in the primary and validation cohorts. The signature was consisted of 10 selected ALN-status-related features. The AUC of the signature from the primary cohort was 0.895 (95% CI, 0.887–0.909) and 0.875 (95% CI, 0.698–0.891) for the validation cohort. The C-Index of the nomogram from the primary cohort was 0.779 (95% CI, 0.752–0.793) and 0.809 (95% CI, 0.794–0.833) for the validation cohort. Our nomogram is a reliable and non-invasive tool for preoperative prediction of ALN status and can be used to optimize current treatment strategy for breast cancer patients.