Predicting occult lymph node metastasis in solid-predominantly invasive lung adenocarcinoma across multiple centers using radiomics-deep learning fusion model

Background In solid-predominantly invasive lung adenocarcinoma (SPILAC), occult lymph node metastasis (OLNM) is pivotal for determining treatment strategies. This study seeks to develop and validate a fusion model combining radiomics and deep learning to predict OLNM preoperatively in SPILAC patients across multiple centers. Methods In this study, 1325 cT1a-bN0M0 SPILAC patients from six hospitals were retrospectively analyzed and divided into pathological nodal positive (pN+) and negative (pN-) groups. Three predictive models for OLNM were developed: a radiomics model employing decision trees and support vector machines; a deep learning model using ResNet-18, ResNet-34, ResNet-50, DenseNet-121, and Swin Transformer, initialized randomly or pre-trained on large-scale medical data; and a fusion model integrating both approaches using addition and concatenation techniques. The model performance was evaluated by the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC). Results All patients were assigned to four groups: training set ( n = 470), internal validation set ( n = 202), and independent test set 1 ( n = 227) and 2 ( n = 426). Among the 1325 patients, 478 (36%) had OLNM (pN+). The fusion model, combining radiomics with pre-trained ResNet-18 features via concatenation, outperformed others with an average AUC (aAUC) of 0.754 across validation and test sets, compared to aAUCs of 0.715 for the radiomics model and 0.676 for the deep learning model. Conclusion The radiomics-deep learning fusion model showed promising ability to generalize in predicting OLNM from CT scans, potentially aiding personalized treatment for SPILAC patients across multiple centers.