Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40046573›Full record

ArticlePhysics and imaging in radiation oncology2025

The prognostic value of pathologic lymph node imaging using deep learning-based outcome prediction in oropharyngeal cancer patients.

Baoqiang Ma, Alessia De Biase, Jiapan Guo, Lisanne V van Dijk, Johannes A Langendijk, Stefan Both, Peter M A van Ooijen, Nanna M Sijtsema

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Article in Physics and imaging in radiation oncology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

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0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Baoqiang MaDepartment of Radiation Oncology, University of Groningen, University Medical Centre Groningen (UMCG), Groningen, the Netherlands.
Alessia De BiaseDepartment of Radiation Oncology, University of Groningen, University Medical Centre Groningen (UMCG), Groningen, the Netherlands.
Jiapan GuoBernoulli Institute for Mathematics, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.
Lisanne V van DijkDepartment of Radiation Oncology, University of Groningen, University Medical Centre Groningen (UMCG), Groningen, the Netherlands.
Johannes A LangendijkDepartment of Radiation Oncology, University of Groningen, University Medical Centre Groningen (UMCG), Groningen, the Netherlands.
Stefan BothDepartment of Radiation Oncology, University of Groningen, University Medical Centre Groningen (UMCG), Groningen, the Netherlands.
Peter M A van OoijenDepartment of Radiation Oncology, University of Groningen, University Medical Centre Groningen (UMCG), Groningen, the Netherlands.
Nanna M SijtsemaDepartment of Radiation Oncology, University of Groningen, University Medical Centre Groningen (UMCG), Groningen, the Netherlands.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Background and purpose: Deep learning (DL) models can extract prognostic image features from pre-treatment PET/CT scans. The study objective was to explore the potential benefits of incorporating pathologic lymph node (PL) spatial information in addition to that of the primary tumor (PT) in DL-based models for predicting local control (LC), regional control (RC), distant-metastasis-free survival (DMFS), and overall survival (OS) in oropharyngeal cancer (OPC) patients. Materials and methods: The study included 409 OPC patients treated with definitive (chemo)radiotherapy between 2010 and 2022. Patient data, including PET/CT scans, manually contoured PT (GTVp) and PL (GTVln) structures, clinical variables, and endpoints, were collected. Firstly, a DL-based method was employed to segment tumours in PET/CT, resulting in predicted probability maps for PT (TPMp) and PL (TPMln). Secondly, different combinations of CT, PET, manual contours and probability maps from 300 patients were used to train DL-based outcome prediction models for each endpoint through 5-fold cross validation. Model performance, assessed by concordance index (C-index), was evaluated using a test set of 100 patients. Results: Including PL improved the C-index results for all endpoints except LC. For LC, comparable C-indices (around 0.66) were observed between models trained using only PT and those incorporating PL as additional structure. Models trained using PT and PL combined into a single structure achieved the highest C-index of 0.65 and 0.80 for RC and DMFS prediction, respectively. Models trained using these target structures as separate entities achieved the highest C-index of 0.70 for OS. Conclusion: Incorporating lymph node spatial information improved the prediction performance for RC, DMFS, and OS.

Indexed as

Deep learningLymph node imagingOropharyngeal cancerOutcome prediction

Identifiers

PMID40046573
PMCPMC11880716

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