A computed tomography–based radiomics signature for predicting expression of programmed death ligand 1 in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

ObjectivesAccurate prediction of the expression of programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) before immunotherapy is crucial. This study was performed to construct and validate a contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT)–based radiomics signature to predict the expression of PD-L1 in HNSCC.MethodsIn total, 157 patients with confirmed HNSCC who underwent CECT scans and immunohistochemical examination of tumor PD-L1 expression were enrolled in this study. The patients were divided into a training set (n = 104; 62 PD-L1–positive and 42 PD-L1–negative) and an external validation set (n = 53; 34 PD-L1–positive and 19 PD-L1–negative). A radiomics signature was constructed from radiomics features extracted from the CECT images, and a radiomics score was calculated. Performance of the radiomics signature was assessed using receiver operating characteristics analysis.ResultsNine features were finally selected to construct the radiomics signature. The performance of the radiomics signature to distinguish between a PD-L1–positive and PD-L1–negative status in both the training and validation sets was good, with an area under the receiver operating characteristics curve of 0.852 and 0.802 for the training and validation sets, respectively.ConclusionsA CECT–based radiomics signature was constructed to predict the expression of PD-L1 in HNSCC. This model showed favorable predictive efficacy and might be useful for identifying patients with HNSCC who can benefit from anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy.Key Points• Accurate prediction of the expression of PD-L1 in HNSCC before immunotherapy is crucial.• A CECT–based radiomics signature showed favorable predictive efficacy in estimation of the PD-L1 expression status in patients with HNSCC.