CT Radiomics Combined With Clinicopathological Features to Predict Invasive Mucinous Adenocarcinoma in Patients With Lung Adenocarcinoma

Objective: This study aimed to develop and validate predictive models using clinical parameters, radiomic features, and a combination of both for invasive mucinous adenocarcinoma (IMA) of the lung in patients with lung adenocarcinoma. Method: A total of 173 and 391 patients with IMA and non-IMA, respectively, were retrospectively analyzed from January 2017 to September 2022 in our hospital. Propensity Score Matching was used to match the 2 groups of patients. A total of 1037 radiomic features were extracted from contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT). The patients were randomly divided into training and test groups at a ratio of 7:3. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator algorithm was used for radiomic feature selection. Three radiomics prediction models were applied: logistic regression (logistic), support vector machine (SVM), and decision tree. The best-performing model was adopted, and the radiomics score (Radscore) was then computed. A clinical model was developed using logistic regression. Finally, a combined model was established based on a clinical model and a radiomics model. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) and decision curve analysis were used to evaluate the predictive value of the developed models. Results: Both clinical and radiomics models established using the logistic method showed the best performance. The Delong test revealed that the combined model was superior to the clinical and radiomics models (P = .018 and .020, respectively). The ROC-AUC (also decision curve analysis) of the combined model was 0.840 and 0.850 in the training and testing groups, respectively, which showed good predictive performance for IMA. The Brier scores for the combined model were 0.161 and 0.154 in the training and testing groups, respectively. Conclusion: The combined model incorporating radiomic CT features and clinical predictors may have the potential to predict IMA in patients with lung cancer.