RESUMO
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy results in various responses when used to treat locally advanced gastric cancer, we aimed to develop and validate a predictive model of the response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with gastric cancer. METHODS: A total of 128 patients with locally advanced gastric cancer who underwent pre-treatment computed tomography (CT) scanning followed by neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy were included (training cohort: n = 64; validation cohort: n = 64). We built a radiomics score combined with laboratory parameters to create a nomogram for predicting the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy and calculating scores for risk factors. RESULTS: The radiomics score system demonstrated good stability and prediction performance for the response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, with the area under the curve of the training and validation cohorts being 0.8 and 0.64, respectively. The radiomics score proved to be an independent risk factor affecting the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy. In addition to the radiomics score, four other risk factors were included in the nomogram, namely the platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, total bilirubin, ALT/AST, and CA199. The model had a C-index of 0.8. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicated that radiomics features could be potential biomarkers for the early prediction of the response to neoadjuvant treatment.