A deep learning-based radiomic nomogram for prognosis and treatment decision in advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma: A multicentre study

Induction chemotherapy (ICT) plus concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) and CCRT alone were the optional treatment regimens in locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients. Currently, the choice of them remains equivocal in clinical practice. We aimed to develop a deep learning-based model for treatment decision in NPC. A total of 1872 patients with stage T3N1M0 NPC were enrolled from four Chinese centres and received either ICT+CCRT or CCRT. A nomogram was constructed for predicting the prognosis of patients with different treatment regimens using multi-task deep learning radiomics and pre-treatment MR images, based on which an optimal treatment regimen was recommended. Model performance was assessed by the concordance index (C-index) and the Kaplan-Meier estimator. The nomogram showed excellent prognostic ability for disease-free survival in both the CCRT (C-index range: 0.888-0.921) and ICT+CCRT (C-index range: 0.784-0.830) groups. According to the prognostic difference between treatments using the nomogram, patients were divided into the ICT-preferred and CCRT-preferred groups. In the ICT-preferred group, patients receiving ICT+CCRT exhibited prolonged survival over those receiving CCRT in the internal and external test cohorts (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.17, p