MRI-Based Radiomics Analysis to Assess Treatment Response after Neoadjuvant Therapy in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Motivation: Radiomics, as a non-invasive way for analysis of tumor heterogeneity, has been applied to the detection of therapeutic sensibility with satisfactory outcomes. Goal(s): This study aimed to explore the predictive value of nomogram combing MRI-based radiomics and clinical factors in detecting tumor response to neoadjuvant therapy in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients. Approach: LASSO-logistic regression analysis was applied to select radiomics features. The “rms” package was used to construct nomogram and calibration curves. The ROC curves, calibration, and decision curves were performed to assess the performance of the models. Results: The nomograms integrated radiomics scores with clinical factors outperformed the clinical-only or radiomics-only models. Impact: The nomogram developed from MRI-based radiomics combined with clinical factors could serve as a reliable tool for non-invasively discriminating neoadjuvant chemotherapy responders from non-responders and provide a basis for personalized therapeutic regimens for LA-NPC patients.