AUTHOR=Li Siqi , Li Wei , Ma Tianyu , Fu Siyun , Gao Xiang , Qin Na , Wu Yuhua , Zhang Xinyong , Wang Jinghui , Pan Yuanming , Liu Zhidong 

TITLE=Assessing the efficacy of immunotherapy in lung squamous carcinoma using artificial intelligence neural network

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2022.1024707

DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2022.1024707

ISSN=1664-3224

ABSTRACT=Background: At present, immunotherapy is a very promising treatment method for 
lung cancer patients, while the factors affecting response are still controversial. It is 
crucial to predict the efficacy for lung squamous carcinoma patients who received
immunotherapy. 
Methods: In our retrospective study we enrolled lung squamous carcinoma patients
who received immunotherapy in Beijing Chest Hospital from January 2017 to 
November 2021. All patients were grouped into two cohorts randomly, the training
cohort (80% of total) and the test cohort (20% of total). The training cohort was used 
to build neural network models to assess the efficacy and outcome of immunotherapy 
in lung squamous carcinoma based on clinical information. The main outcome was the 
disease control rate (DCR), then secondary outcomes were objective response rate 
(ORR), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS).
Results: 289 patients were included in this study. DCR model owned 0.9526 (95%CI, 
0.9088-0.9879) AUC in internal validation and 0.9491 (95%CI, 0.8704-1.0000) in 
external validation. ORR model performed with 0.8030 AUC (95%CI, 0.7437-0.8545) 
in internal validation and 0.7040 (95%CI, 0.5457-0.8379) in external validation. PFS 
model had 0.8531 (95%CI, 0.8024-0.8975) AUC in internal validation and 0.7602 
(95%CI, 0.6236-0.8733) in external validation. OS model had a 0.8006 AUC (95%CI, 
0.7995-0.8017) in internal validation and 0.7382 (95%CI, 0.7366- 0.7398) in external 
validation.
Conclusions: The neural network models show benefits in the efficacy evaluation of 
immunotherapy to lung squamous carcinoma patients, especially DCR and ORR. In our 
retrospective study, we found that neoadjuvant and adjuvant immunotherapy may bring 
greater efficacy benefits to patients.