Prognostic aspects of lymphovascular invasion in localized gastric cancer: new insights into the radiomics and deep transfer learning from contrast-enhanced CT imaging

Objectives Lymphovascular invasion (LVI) is a factor significantly impacting treatment and outcome of patients with gastric cancer (GC). We aimed to investigate prognostic aspects of a preoperative LVI prediction in GC using radiomics and deep transfer learning (DTL) from contrast-enhanced CT (CECT) imaging. Methods A total of 1062 GC patients (728 training and 334 testing) between Jan 2014 and Dec 2018 undergoing gastrectomy were retrospectively included. Based on CECT imaging, we built two gastric imaging (GI) markers, GI-marker-1 from radiomics and GI-marker-2 from DTL features, to decode LVI status. We then integrated demographics, clinical data, GI markers, radiologic interpretation, and biopsies into a Gastric Cancer Risk (GRISK) model for predicting LVI. The performance of GRISK model was tested and applied to predict survival outcomes in GC patients. Furthermore, the prognosis between LVI (+) and LVI (−) patients was compared in chemotherapy and non-chemotherapy cohorts, respectively. Results GI-marker-1 and GI-marker-2 yield similar performance in predicting LVI in training and testing dataset. The GRISK model yields the diagnostic performance with AUC of 0.755 (95% CI 0.719–0.790) and 0.725 (95% CI 0.669–0.781) in training and testing dataset. Patients with LVI (+) trend toward lower progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). The difference of prognosis between LVI (+) and LVI (−) was more noticeable in non-chemotherapy than that in chemotherapy group. Conclusion Radiomics and deep transfer learning features on CECT demonstrate potential power for predicting LVI in GC patients. Prospective use of a GRISK model can help to optimize individualized treatment decisions and predict survival outcomes.