Preoperative prediction of lymphovascular invasion in patients with T1 breast invasive ductal carcinoma based on radiomics nomogram using grayscale ultrasound

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to develop a radiomics nomogram based on grayscale ultrasound (US) for preoperatively predicting Lymphovascular invasion (LVI) in patients with pathologically confirmed T1 (pT1) breast invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). METHODS: One hundred and ninety-two patients with pT1 IDC between September 2020 and August 2022 were analyzed retrospectively. Study population was randomly divided in a 7: 3 ratio into a training dataset of 134 patients (37 patients with LVI-positive) and a validation dataset of 58 patients (19 patients with LVI-positive). Clinical information and conventional US (CUS) features (called clinic_CUS features) were recorded and evaluated to predict LVI. In the training dataset, independent predictors of clinic_CUS features were obtained by univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses and incorporated into a clinic_CUS prediction model. In addition, radiomics features were extracted from the grayscale US images, and the radiomics score (Radscore) was constructed after radiomics feature selection. Subsequent multivariate logistic regression analysis was also performed for Radscore and the independent predictors of clinic_CUS features, and a radiomics nomogram was developed. The performance of the nomogram model was evaluated via its discrimination, calibration, and clinical usefulness. RESULTS: The US reported axillary lymph node metastasis (LNM) (US_LNM) status and tumor margin were determined as independent risk factors, which were combined for the construction of clinic_CUS prediction model for LVI in pT1 IDC. Moreover, tumor margin, US_LNM status and Radscore were independent predictors, incorporated as the radiomics nomogram model, which achieved a superior discrimination to the clinic_CUS model in the training dataset (AUC: 0.849 vs. 0.747; P < 0.001) and validation dataset (AUC: 0.854 vs. 0.713; P = 0.001). Calibration curve for the radiomic nomogram showed good concordance between predicted and actual probability. Furthermore, decision curve analysis (DCA) confirmed that the radiomics nomogram had higher clinical net benefit than the clinic_CUS model. CONCLUSION: The US-based radiomics nomogram, incorporating tumor margin, US_LNM status and Radscore, showed a satisfactory preoperative prediction of LVI in pT1 IDC patients.