AUTHOR=Jiang Nan , Ping Xiaoxia , Meng Qian , Liu Yuanqing , Wang Xi , Hu Chunhong 

TITLE=Development, validation, and visualization of a novel nomogram for predicting clinical outcomes of radiotherapy combined with chemotherapy in locally advanced cervical cancer

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Oncology

VOLUME=Volume 15 - 2025

YEAR=2025

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/oncology/articles/10.3389/fonc.2025.1668971

DOI=10.3389/fonc.2025.1668971

ISSN=2234-943X

ABSTRACT=BackgroundPatients with locally advanced cervical cancer (LACC) have been advised to undergo radical chemoradiotherapy. To determine whether local recurrence or distant metastasis (LRDM) will occur in patients with locally advanced cervical cancer (LACC) after chemoradiotherapy, this study aims to develop and validate a model using clinical and radiomic parameters.MethodsA total of 118 patients with LACC who were treated with radiotherapy combined with chemotherapy were included. They were divided into a training set (n=83) and a validation set (n=35) at an 7:3 ratio. All patients' diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) images were uploaded to the ITK-SNAP software. Regions of interest (ROIs) were manually delineated, and a radiomic model was constructed using radiomic features by the LightGBM algorithm. A comprehensive model was constructed by integrating clinical and radiomic features and was visualized as a nomogram. The area under the curve (AUC) values were used to evaluate their predictive performance, and Decision curve analysis (DCA) was employed to assess the clinical utility of the predictive models. The calibration curves were used to assess the agreement between predicted and observed outcomes for the LRDM in both cohorts.ResultsSeven variables were finally chosen for modeling using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression analysis. The AUC values for the training and test sets of the DWI radiomic model were 0.789 and 0.785, respectively. AUC values for the training and test sets were 0.897 and 0.889, respectively, for the combined model LGBM-nomogram that used DWI and clinical characteristics. The nomogram worked remarkably well in both the training and test cohorts, as shown by the calibration curves.ConclusionThe model integrating DWI and clinical features has shown high value in non-invasive prediction of LRDM, which may aid in treatment and prognostication.