To investigate externally validated magnetic resonance (MR)-based and computed tomography (CT)-based machine learning (ML) models for grading clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC).
Patients with pathologically proven ccRCC in 2009-2018 were retrospectively included for model development and internal validation; patients from another independent institution and The Cancer Imaging Archive dataset were included for external validation. Features were extracted from T1-weighted, T2-weighted, corticomedullary-phase (CMP), and nephrographic-phase (NP) MR as well as precontrast-phase (PCP), CMP, and NP CT. CatBoost was used for ML-model investigation. The reproducibility of texture features was assessed using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Accuracy (ACC) was used for ML-model performance evaluation.
Twenty external and 440 internal cases were included. Among 368 and 276 texture features from MR and CT, 322 and 250 features with good to excellent reproducibility (ICC ≥ 0.75) were included for ML-model development. The best MR- and CT-based ML models satisfactorily distinguished high- from low-grade ccRCCs in internal (MR-ACC = 73% and CT-ACC = 79%) and external (MR-ACC = 74% and CT-ACC = 69%) validation. Compared to single-sequence or single-phase images, the classifiers based on all-sequence MR (71% to 73% in internal and 64% to 74% in external validation) and all-phase CT (77% to 79% in internal and 61% to 69% in external validation) images had significant increases in ACC.
MR- and CT-based ML models are valuable noninvasive techniques for discriminating high- from low-grade ccRCCs, and multiparameter MR- and multiphase CT-based classifiers are potentially superior to those based on single-sequence or single-phase imaging.
• Both the MR- and CT-based machine learning models are reliable predictors for differentiating high- from low-grade ccRCCs. • ML models based on multiparameter MR sequences and multiphase CT images potentially outperform those based on single-sequence or single-phase images in ccRCC grading.
European radiology. 2020 Jan 30 [Epub ahead of print]
Enming Cui, Zhuoyong Li, Changyi Ma, Qing Li, Yi Lei, Yong Lan, Juan Yu, Zhipeng Zhou, Ronggang Li, Wansheng Long, Fan Lin
Department of Radiology, Jiangmen Central Hospital, Affiliated Jiangmen Hospital of SUN YAT-SEN University, 23 Beijie Haibang Street, Jiangmen, 529030, China., Department of Pathology, Jiangmen Central Hospital, Affiliated Jiangmen Hospital of SUN YAT-SEN University, 23 Beijie Haibang Street, Jiangmen, 529030, China., Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen University, Health Science Center, Shenzhen Second People's Hospital, 3002 SunGangXi Road, Shenzhen, 518035, China., Department of Radiology, Jiangmen Central Hospital, Affiliated Jiangmen Hospital of SUN YAT-SEN University, 23 Beijie Haibang Street, Jiangmen, 529030, China. ., Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen University, Health Science Center, Shenzhen Second People's Hospital, 3002 SunGangXi Road, Shenzhen, 518035, China. .