| Literature DB >> 35976907 |
Frederik Wessels1,2, Max Schmitt1, Eva Krieghoff-Henning1, Jakob N Kather3,4,5, Malin Nientiedt2, Maximilian C Kriegmair2, Thomas S Worst2, Manuel Neuberger2, Matthias Steeg6, Zoran V Popovic6, Timo Gaiser6, Christof von Kalle7, Jochen S Utikal8, Stefan Fröhling9, Maurice S Michel2, Philipp Nuhn2, Titus J Brinker1.
Abstract
For clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) risk-dependent diagnostic and therapeutic algorithms are routinely implemented in clinical practice. Artificial intelligence-based image analysis has the potential to improve outcome prediction and thereby risk stratification. Thus, we investigated whether a convolutional neural network (CNN) can extract relevant image features from a representative hematoxylin and eosin-stained slide to predict 5-year overall survival (5y-OS) in ccRCC. The CNN was trained to predict 5y-OS in a binary manner using slides from TCGA and validated using an independent in-house cohort. Multivariable logistic regression was used to combine of the CNNs prediction and clinicopathological parameters. A mean balanced accuracy of 72.0% (standard deviation [SD] = 7.9%), sensitivity of 72.4% (SD = 10.6%), specificity of 71.7% (SD = 11.9%) and area under receiver operating characteristics curve (AUROC) of 0.75 (SD = 0.07) was achieved on the TCGA training set (n = 254 patients / WSIs) using 10-fold cross-validation. On the external validation cohort (n = 99 patients / WSIs), mean accuracy, sensitivity, specificity and AUROC were 65.5% (95%-confidence interval [CI]: 62.9-68.1%), 86.2% (95%-CI: 81.8-90.5%), 44.9% (95%-CI: 40.2-49.6%), and 0.70 (95%-CI: 0.69-0.71). A multivariable model including age, tumor stage and metastasis yielded an AUROC of 0.75 on the TCGA cohort. The inclusion of the CNN-based classification (Odds ratio = 4.86, 95%-CI: 2.70-8.75, p < 0.01) raised the AUROC to 0.81. On the validation cohort, both models showed an AUROC of 0.88. In univariable Cox regression, the CNN showed a hazard ratio of 3.69 (95%-CI: 2.60-5.23, p < 0.01) on TCGA and 2.13 (95%-CI: 0.92-4.94, p = 0.08) on external validation. The results demonstrate that the CNN's image-based prediction of survival is promising and thus this widely applicable technique should be further investigated with the aim of improving existing risk stratification in ccRCC.Entities:
Mesh:
Year: 2022 PMID: 35976907 PMCID: PMC9385058 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0272656
Source DB: PubMed Journal: PLoS One ISSN: 1932-6203 Impact factor: 3.752
Fig 1Preprocessing and workflow.
(A) All annotated whole slide images from TCGA (training set) and from the validation cohort from our institution (independent test set) were tessellated into patches and downscaled as appropriate. Blurry patches were discarded. All patches were saved with a reference to their original WSI. TCGA = The Cancer Genome Atlas. (B) All patches were normalized with the same target, using the method as described by Macenko et al. (C) After preprocessing, the TCGA cohort was used to train the CNN. CNN = convolutional neural network. (D) The trained CNN was evaluated on the independent validation cohort from our institution (in-house).
Fig 2Flowchart of patient inclusion (one WSI per patient).
Study population.
| Variable | TCGA | In-house validation |
|---|---|---|
|
| 254 | 99 |
|
| 62 (53–72) | 62 (53–69) |
|
| 160 (63) | 71 (72) |
|
| ||
|
| 99 (39) | 51 (52) |
|
| 39 (15) | 13 (13) |
|
| 106 (42) | 33 (33) |
|
| 10 (4) | 2 (2) |
|
| ||
|
| 2 (1) | 11 (11) |
|
| 84 (33) | 80 (81) |
|
| 105 (41) | 8 (8) |
|
| 62 (24) | 0 (0) |
|
| 1 (0.3) | 0 (0) |
|
| ||
|
| 66 (26) | 10 (10) |
|
| ||
|
| 63 (21.5–81) | 103 (90.75–116) |
|
| 155 (61) | 25 (25) |
| | 134 (53) | 13 (13) |
a used as label (5-year overall survival) for the CNN
G = grading; IQR = interquartile range; M = metastasis; n = number; OS = overall survival; TCGA = The Cancer Genome Atlas.
Fig 3Prediction of overall survival in clear cell renal cell carcinoma using a CNN.
(A) Mean ROC curve (orange) of the CNN’s prediction of 5y-OS on the training set. The dotted blue line represents the ROC curve resulting from random classification. The 1-specificity (false positive rate) was plotted on the x-axis and the sensitivity (true positive rate) on the y-axis. 5y-OS = 5-year overall survival; CNN = convolutional neural network; AUC = area under curve; ROC = receiver operating characteristics. (B) Mean ROC curve along with the 95% confidence interval (grey area) over ten identically trained CNNs on the validation cohort. (C) Kaplan-Meier curves grouped by the CNN-based classification and log-rank test for the training cohort. The blue curve shows the group predicted as 5y-OS(-) by the CNN, the orange curve shows the 5y-OS(+) group. (D) Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank test for the validation cohort.
Multivariable logistic regression for the prediction of 5-year overall survival trained on the TCGA cohort.
| ß | Odds Ratio | 95%–CI | p-value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| ||||
| Metastasis (M+ vs. M-) | 1.29 | 3.63 | 1.47–7.56 | 0.001 |
| Tumor size (T3/T4 vs. T1/T2) | 1.13 | 3.09 | 1.72–5.53 | < 0.001 |
| Age (increase per 10 years) | 0.26 | 1.31 | 1.04–1.64 | 0.02 |
|
| ||||
| CNN prediction (5y-OS(-) vs. 5y-OS(+)) | 1.58 | 4.86 | 2.70–8.75 | < 0.001 |
| Metastasis (M+ vs. M0) | 1.01 | 2.74 | 1.26–5.96 | 0.01 |
| Tumor size (T3/T4 vs. T1/T2) | 0.99 | 2.69 | 1.43–5.05 | 0.002 |
| Age (increase per 10 years) | 0.18 | 1.19 | 0.93–1.52 | 0.16 |
5y-OS = 5-year overall survival; 95%-CI = 95% confidence interval; ß = Beta-coefficient; CNN = convolutional neural network; M = metastasis; TCGA = The Cancer Genome Atlas.
Fig 4Exemplary prediction maps and corresponding H&E stain.
Two prediction maps of slides that the CNN prognosticated correctly with high probability are shown. Blue patches indicate a probability score < 0.5 and thus classified as 5y-OS(+) while red patches indicate a score > 0.5 and thus classified as 5y-OS(-). 5y-OS = 5-year overall survival. CNN = convolutional neural network. (A) The slide correctly classified as 5y-OS(-) shows a high-grade renal cell carcinoma with greatly enlarged, partly multinuclear nucleoli, heterogeneous nuclear atypia and accompanying inflammatory reaction. Scale bar = 100μm. (B) The slide correctly classified as 5y-OS(+) shows a low-grade renal cell carcinoma with still mostly uniform nuclei and no areas of a more aggressive type. Scale bar = 100μm.