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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1435668

Radiomics-based biomarker for PD-1 status and prognosis analysis in patients with HCC

Provisionally accepted
Gulizaina Hapaer Gulizaina Hapaer 1Feng Che Feng Che 1Xu Qing Xu Qing 2Qian Li Qian Li 1Ailin Liang Ailin Liang 1Zhou Wang Zhou Wang 1Jituome Ziluo Jituome Ziluo 1Xin Zhang Xin Zhang 3Yi Wei Yi Wei 1Yuan Yuan Yuan Yuan 1*Bin Song Bin Song 4,5*
  • 1 Department of Radiology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
  • 2 Institute of Clinical Pathology, Key Laboratory of Transplant Engineering and Immunology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
  • 3 Pharmaceutical Diagnostics, GE Healthcare, China, Beijing, China
  • 4 West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
  • 5 Department of Radiology, Sanya People’s Hospital, Sanya, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    To investigate the impact of preoperative contrast-enhanced CT-based radiomics model on PD-1 prediction in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients.The study included 105 HCC patients (training cohort: 72; validation cohort: 33) who underwent preoperative contrast-enhanced CT and received systemic sorafenib treatment after surgery. Radiomics score was built for each patient and was integrated with independent clinicoradiologic predictors into the radiomics model using multivariable logistic regression analysis.Results: Seventeen radiomics features were finally selected to construct the radiomics score. In multivariate analysis, serum creatine and peritumoral enhancement were significant independent factors for PD-1 prediction. The radiomics model integrated radiomics signature with serum creatine and peritumoral enhancement showed good discriminative performance (AUC of 0.897 and 0.794 in the training and validation cohort). Overall survival (OS) was significantly different between the radiomics-predicted PD-1-positive and PD-1-negative groups (OS: 29.66 months, CI:16.03-44.40 vs. 31.04 months, CI: 17.10-44.07, P<0.001). Radiomics-predicted PD-1 was an independent predictor of OS of patients treated with sorafenib after surgery. (Hazard ratio [HR]: 1.61 [1.23-2.1], P<0.001).The proposed model based on radiomic signature helps to evaluate PD-1 status of HCC patients and may be used for evaluating patients most likely to benefit from sorafenib as a potentially combination therapy regimen with immune checkpoint therapies.

    Keywords: Hepatocellular Carcinoma, PD-1, Radiomics, computed tomography, overall survival

    Received: 20 May 2024; Accepted: 13 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Hapaer, Che, Qing, Li, Liang, Wang, Ziluo, Zhang, Wei, Yuan and Song. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Yuan Yuan, Department of Radiology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, Sichuan Province, China
    Bin Song, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.