An artificial intelligence method to assess the tumor microenvironment with treatment outcomes for gastric cancer patients after gastrectomy

BACKGROUND: The tumor microenvironment (TME) plays an important role in the occurrence and development of gastric cancer (GC) and is widely used to assess the treatment outcomes of GC patients. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) and gene sequencing are the main analysis methods for the TME but are limited due to the subjectivity of observers, the high cost of equipment and the need for professional analysts. METHODS: The ImmunoScore (IS) was developed in the TCGA cohort and validated in GEO cohorts. The Radiomic ImmunoScore (RIS) was developed in the TCGA cohort and validated in the Nanfang cohort. A nomogram was developed and validated in the Nanfang cohort based on RIS and clinical features. RESULTS: For IS, the area under the curves (AUCs) were 0.798 for 2-year overall survival (OS) and 0.873 for 4-year overall survival. For RIS, in the TCGA cohort, the AUCs distinguishing High-IS or Low-IS and predicting prognosis were 0.85 and 0.81, respectively; in the Nanfang cohort, the AUC predicting prognosis was 0.72. The nomogram performed better than the TNM staging system according to the ROC curve (all P < 0.01). Patients with TNM stage II and III in the High-nomogram group were more likely to benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy than Low-nomogram group patients. CONCLUSIONS: The RIS and the nomogram can be used to assess the TME, prognosis and adjuvant chemotherapy benefit of GC patients after radical gastrectomy and are valuable additions to the current TNM staging system. High-nomogram GC patients may benefit more from adjuvant chemotherapy than Low-nomogram GC patients. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12967-022-03298-7.