CT-based machine learning radiomics predicts CCR5 expression level and survival in ovarian cancer

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of C-C motif chemokine receptor type 5 (CCR5) expression level for patients with ovarian cancer and to establish a radiomics model that can predict CCR5 expression level using The Cancer Imaging Archive (TCIA) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. METHODS: A total of 343 cases of ovarian cancer from the TCGA were used for the gene-based prognostic analysis. Fifty seven cases had preoperative computed tomography (CT) images stored in TCIA with genomic data in TCGA were used for radiomics feature extraction and model construction. 89 cases with both TCGA and TCIA clinical data were used for radiomics model evaluation. After feature extraction, a radiomics signature was constructed using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression analysis. A prognostic scoring system incorporating radiomics signature based on CCR5 expression level and clinicopathologic risk factors was proposed for survival prediction. RESULTS: CCR5 was identified as a differentially expressed prognosis-related gene in tumor and normal sample, which were involved in the regulation of immune response and tumor invasion and metastasis. Four optimal radiomics features were selected to predict overall survival. The performance of the radiomics model for predicting the CCR5 expression level with 10-fold cross- validation achieved Area Under Curve (AUCs) of 0.770 and of 0.726, respectively, in the training and validation sets. A predictive nomogram was generated based on the total risk score of each patient, the AUCs of the time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of the model was 0.8, 0.673 and 0.792 for 1-year, 3-year and 5-year, respectively. Along with clinical features, important imaging biomarkers could improve the overall survival accuracy of the prediction model. CONCLUSION: The expression levels of CCR5 can affect the prognosis of patients with ovarian cancer. CT-based radiomics could serve as a new tool for prognosis prediction. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13048-022-01089-8.