Predicting grade II-IV bone marrow suppression in patients with cervical cancer based on radiomics and dosiomics.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study is to develop a machine learning model integrating clinical characteristics with radiomics and dosiomics data, aiming to assess their predictive utility in anticipating grade 2 or higher BMS occurrences in cervical cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy.

METHODS

A retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical data, planning CT images, and radiotherapy planning documents of 106 cervical cancer patients who underwent radiotherapy at our hospital. The patients were randomly divided into training set and test set in an 8:2 ratio. The radiomic features and dosiomic features were extracted from the pelvic bone marrow (PBM) of planning CT images and radiotherapy planning documents, and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) algorithm was employed to identify the best predictive characteristics. Subsequently, the dosiomic score (D-score) and the radiomic score (R-score) was calculated. Clinical predictors were identified through both univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis. Predictive models were constructed by intergrating clinical predictors with DVH parameters, combining DVH parameters and R-score with clinical predictors, and amalgamating clinical predictors with both D-score and R-score. The predictive model's efficacy was assessed by plotting the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and evaluating its performance through the area under the ROC curve (AUC), the calibration curve, and decision curve analysis (DCA).

RESULTS

Seven radiomic features and eight dosiomic features exhibited a strong correlation with the occurrence of BMS. Through univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses, age, planning target volume (PTV) size and chemotherapy were identified as clinical predictors. The AUC values for the training and test sets were 0.751 and 0.743, respectively, surpassing those of clinical DVH R-score model (AUC=0.707 and 0.679) and clinical DVH model (AUC=0.650 and 0.638). Furthermore, the analysis of both the calibration and the DCA suggested that the combined model provided superior calibration and demonstrated a higher net clinical benefit.

CONCLUSION

The combined model is of high diagnostic value in predicting the occurrence of BMS in patients with cervical cancer during radiotherapy.