A CT-based radiomics model for predicting progression-free survival in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer

Purpose This study aimed to develop and validate a CT-based radiomics nomogram for predicting the progression-free survival (PFS) of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Materials and methods A total of 144 EOC patients were retrospectively enrolled from two hospitals and The Cancer Genome Atlas and The Cancer Imaging Archive, divided into a training set (n = 101) and a test set (n = 43) using a 7:3 ratio. Radiomic features were extracted from contrast enhanced CT images. The radiomics score (rad-score) was developed using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox regression. Clinical semantic features with P < 0.05 in multivariate Cox regression were combined with rad-score to develop radiomics nomogram. The predictive performance of the nomogram was assessed using the concordance index (C-index) and calibration curves. Results Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that the International Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecology stage and residual tumor are significant predictors of PFS. Twelve radiomic features were selected by LASSO Cox regression. The combined model demonstrated superior predictive performance, with a C-index of 0.78 (95% CI: 0.689-0.889) in the training set, and 0.73 (95% CI: 0.572-0.886) in the test set. The combined model outperformed the clinical and radiomics models in predicting 1-, 3-, and 5-year PFS, with area under curves of 0.850 (95% CI: 0.722-0.943), 0.828 (95% CI: 0.722-0.901), and 0.845 (95% CI: 0.722-0.943), respectively. Calibration curves of the radiomic nomogram for prediction of 1-year, 3-year, 5-year PFS showed excellent calibrations in both training and test sets. Conclusion The combined model integrating rad-score and clinical semantic features effectively evaluates PFS in EOC patients. The radiomics nomogram provides a non-invasive, simple, and feasible method to predict PFS in EOC patients, which may facilitate clinical decision-making.