Machine learning prediction of early recurrence after surgery for gallbladder cancer

Abstract Background Gallbladder cancer is often associated with poor prognosis, especially when patients experience early recurrence after surgery. Machine learning may improve prediction accuracy by analysing complex non-linear relationships. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a machine learning model to predict early recurrence risk after resection of gallbladder cancer. Methods In this cross-sectional study, patients who underwent resection of gallbladder cancer with curative intent between 2001 and 2022 were identified using an international database. Patients were assigned randomly to a development and an evaluation cohort. Four machine learning models were trained to predict early recurrence (within 12 months) and compared using the area under the receiver operating curve (AUC). Results Among 374 patients, 56 (15.0%) experienced early recurrence; most patients had T1 (51, 13.6%) or T2 (180, 48.1%) disease, and a subset had lymph node metastasis (120, 32.1%). In multivariable Cox analysis, resection margins (HR 2.34, 95% c.i. 1.55 to 3.80; P < 0.001), and greater AJCC T (HR 2.14, 1.41 to 3.25; P < 0.001) and N (HR 1.59, 1.05 to 2.42; P = 0.029) categories were independent predictors of early recurrence. The random forest model demonstrated the highest discrimination in the evaluation cohort (AUC 76.4, 95% c.i. 66.3 to 86.5), compared with XGBoost (AUC 74.4, 53.4 to 85.3), support vector machine (AUC 67.2, 54.4 to 80.0), and logistic regression (AUC 73.1, 60.6 to 85.7), as well as good accuracy after bootstrapping validation (AUC 75.3, 75.0 to 75.6). Patients classified as being at high versus low risk of early recurrence had much worse overall survival (36.1 versus 63.8% respectively; P < 0.001). An easy-to-use calculator was made available (https://catalano-giovanni.shinyapps.io/GallbladderER). Conclusion Machine learning-based prediction of early recurrence after resection of gallbladder cancer may help stratify patients, as well as help inform postoperative adjuvant therapy and surveillance strategies.