Construction and analysis of an ulcer risk prediction model after endoscopic submucosal dissection for early gastric cancer

BACKGROUND: Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) has been widely used in the treatment of early gastric cancer (EGC). A personalized and effective prediction method for ESD with EGC is urgently needed. AIM: To construct a risk prediction model for ulcers after ESD for EGC based on LASSO regression. METHODS: A total of 196 patients with EGC who received ESD treatment were prospectively selected as the research subjects and followed up for one month. They were divided into an ulcer group and a non-ulcer group according to whether ulcers occurred. The general data, pathology, and endoscopic characteristics of the groups were compared, and the best risk predictor subsets were screened by LASSO regression and tenfold cross-validation. Multivariate logistic regression was applied to analyze the risk factors for ulcers after ESD in patients with EGC. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to estimate the predictive model performance. RESULTS: One month after the operation, no patient was lost to follow-up. The incidence of ulcers was 20.41% (40/196) (ulcer group), and the incidence of no ulcers was 79.59% (156/196) (non-ulcer group). There were statistically significant differences in the course of disease, Helicobacter pylori infection history, smoking history, tumor number, clopidogrel medication history, lesion diameter, infiltration depth, convergent folds, and mucosal discoloration between the groups. Gray's medication history, lesion diameter, convergent folds, and mucosal discoloration, which were the 4 nonzero regression coefficients, were screened by LASSO regression analysis. Further multivariate logistic analysis showed that lesion diameter [Odds ratios (OR) = 30.490, 95%CI: 8.584-108.294], convergent folds (OR = 3.860, 95%CI: 1.060-14.055), mucosal discoloration (OR = 3.191, 95%CI: 1.016-10.021), and history of clopidogrel (OR = 3.554, 95%CI: 1.009-12.515) were independent risk factors for ulcers after ESD in patients with EGC (P < 0.05). The ROC curve showed that the area under the curve of the risk prediction model for ulcers after ESD in patients with EGC was 0.944 (95%CI: 0.902-0.972). CONCLUSION: Clopidogrel medication history, lesion diameter, convergent folds, and mucosal discoloration can predict the occurrence of ulcers after ESD in patients with EGC.