Definition and validation of a radiomics signature for loco-regional tumour control in patients with locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

PurposeTo develop and validate a CT-based radiomics signature for the prognosis of loco-regional tumour control (LRC) in patients with locally advanced head neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) treated by primary radiochemotherapy (RCTx) based on retrospective data from 6 partner sites German Cancer Consortium - Radiation Oncology Group (DKTK-ROG).Material methodsPre-treatment CT images 318 HNSCC were collected. Four-hundred forty-six features extracted each volume then filtered through stability analysis clustering. First, baseline was developed demographic tumour-associated clinical parameters. This supplemented imaging features. A final derived using repeated 3-fold cross-validation discovery cohort. Performance external validation assessed concordance index (C-Index). Furthermore, calibration patient stratification groups low high risk recurrence analysed.ResultsFor signature, only selected. The combined two independent It achieved moderately good discriminatory performance (C-Index [95% confidence interval]: 0.66 [0.55–0.75]) cohort along significant (p = 0.005) calibration.ConclusionWe identified validated clinical-radiomics LRC multi-centric dataset. Prospective will be performed HNprädBio trial DKTK-ROG once follow-up is completed.