Predicting disease progression from the rate of bodyweight change in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patient during radiotherapy

Abstract Bodyweight loss is a common occurrence in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma (NPC) patients during Radiotherapy (RT). Previous studies found that the prognostic value of percentage weight loss (pWL) during RT is not credible. We aimed to develop a novel progression predictor surrogated to pWL by mode...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jiachen Sun, Sai kit Edmond Lam, Xinzhi Teng, Jiang Zhang, Francis Kar-ho Lee, Celia Wai-yi Yip, James Chung-hang Chow, Victor Ho-fun Lee, Ying Sun, Jing Cai
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-03-01
Series:Scientific Reports
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-88810-x
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849761444368744448
author Jiachen Sun
Sai kit Edmond Lam
Xinzhi Teng
Jiang Zhang
Francis Kar-ho Lee
Celia Wai-yi Yip
James Chung-hang Chow
Victor Ho-fun Lee
Ying Sun
Jing Cai
author_facet Jiachen Sun
Sai kit Edmond Lam
Xinzhi Teng
Jiang Zhang
Francis Kar-ho Lee
Celia Wai-yi Yip
James Chung-hang Chow
Victor Ho-fun Lee
Ying Sun
Jing Cai
author_sort Jiachen Sun
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Bodyweight loss is a common occurrence in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma (NPC) patients during Radiotherapy (RT). Previous studies found that the prognostic value of percentage weight loss (pWL) during RT is not credible. We aimed to develop a novel progression predictor surrogated to pWL by modelling all bodyweight records measured during the treatment interval. This retrospective study included two independent hospitals of 624 patients. The Predicted Progression Probability (PPP) was obtained from deep learning-guided differential equation solution, model by the patient’s age, sex, body height, and the weekly measured bodyweight records. The performance of PPP in predicting disease progression was assessed, its association with prognosis and adjuvant chemotherapy response was evaluated. The PPP was learnt from the training cohort (N = 257) with 7 weeks of bodyweight records. The prediction performance was validated with 367 patients of the testing cohort sub-divided according to the number of bodyweight records found. The area under of curve for patients with 7 weeks (N = 155), 6 weeks (N = 176), and 5 weeks bodyweight records (N = 32) were 0.76, 0.73, and 0.95 respectively. PPP was significantly associated with progression-free and remained an independent prognostic factor adjusting for clinicopathologic variables in multivariate analysis in all study cohort (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] range: 2.50–7.04, all p < 0.001). Patients with high-PPP derived progression benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy (HR: 0.41–0.54, all p < 0.03), whereas those with low-PPP did not for both cohorts. The trajectory of bodyweight change during RT is more robust than the pWL to give a progression prediction after RT. The PPP is a reliable predictor for estimating the risk of residual diseases after RT course, which also helps to predict adjuvant chemotherapy response in locally advanced NPC patients.
format Article
id doaj-art-0462f7e7a57c44f7890fe8051c6074b3
institution DOAJ
issn 2045-2322
language English
publishDate 2025-03-01
publisher Nature Portfolio
record_format Article
series Scientific Reports
spelling doaj-art-0462f7e7a57c44f7890fe8051c6074b32025-08-20T03:06:01ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222025-03-0115111210.1038/s41598-025-88810-xPredicting disease progression from the rate of bodyweight change in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patient during radiotherapyJiachen Sun0Sai kit Edmond Lam1Xinzhi Teng2Jiang Zhang3Francis Kar-ho Lee4Celia Wai-yi Yip5James Chung-hang Chow6Victor Ho-fun Lee7Ying Sun8Jing Cai9Department of Health Technology and Informatics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityDepartment of Health Technology and Informatics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityDepartment of Health Technology and Informatics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityDepartment of Clinical Oncology, Queen Elizabeth HospitalDepartment of Clinical Oncology, Queen Elizabeth HospitalDepartment of Clinical Oncology, Queen Elizabeth HospitalDepartment of Clinical Oncology, The University of Hong KongState Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Diagnostics and Therapy, Department of Radiation Oncology, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer CenterDepartment of Health Technology and Informatics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityAbstract Bodyweight loss is a common occurrence in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma (NPC) patients during Radiotherapy (RT). Previous studies found that the prognostic value of percentage weight loss (pWL) during RT is not credible. We aimed to develop a novel progression predictor surrogated to pWL by modelling all bodyweight records measured during the treatment interval. This retrospective study included two independent hospitals of 624 patients. The Predicted Progression Probability (PPP) was obtained from deep learning-guided differential equation solution, model by the patient’s age, sex, body height, and the weekly measured bodyweight records. The performance of PPP in predicting disease progression was assessed, its association with prognosis and adjuvant chemotherapy response was evaluated. The PPP was learnt from the training cohort (N = 257) with 7 weeks of bodyweight records. The prediction performance was validated with 367 patients of the testing cohort sub-divided according to the number of bodyweight records found. The area under of curve for patients with 7 weeks (N = 155), 6 weeks (N = 176), and 5 weeks bodyweight records (N = 32) were 0.76, 0.73, and 0.95 respectively. PPP was significantly associated with progression-free and remained an independent prognostic factor adjusting for clinicopathologic variables in multivariate analysis in all study cohort (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] range: 2.50–7.04, all p < 0.001). Patients with high-PPP derived progression benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy (HR: 0.41–0.54, all p < 0.03), whereas those with low-PPP did not for both cohorts. The trajectory of bodyweight change during RT is more robust than the pWL to give a progression prediction after RT. The PPP is a reliable predictor for estimating the risk of residual diseases after RT course, which also helps to predict adjuvant chemotherapy response in locally advanced NPC patients.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-88810-xNasopharyngeal carcinomaConcurrent chemoradiotherapyAdjuvant chemotherapyWeight lossDeep learningDifferential equations
spellingShingle Jiachen Sun
Sai kit Edmond Lam
Xinzhi Teng
Jiang Zhang
Francis Kar-ho Lee
Celia Wai-yi Yip
James Chung-hang Chow
Victor Ho-fun Lee
Ying Sun
Jing Cai
Predicting disease progression from the rate of bodyweight change in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patient during radiotherapy
Scientific Reports
Nasopharyngeal carcinoma
Concurrent chemoradiotherapy
Adjuvant chemotherapy
Weight loss
Deep learning
Differential equations
title Predicting disease progression from the rate of bodyweight change in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patient during radiotherapy
title_full Predicting disease progression from the rate of bodyweight change in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patient during radiotherapy
title_fullStr Predicting disease progression from the rate of bodyweight change in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patient during radiotherapy
title_full_unstemmed Predicting disease progression from the rate of bodyweight change in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patient during radiotherapy
title_short Predicting disease progression from the rate of bodyweight change in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patient during radiotherapy
title_sort predicting disease progression from the rate of bodyweight change in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patient during radiotherapy
topic Nasopharyngeal carcinoma
Concurrent chemoradiotherapy
Adjuvant chemotherapy
Weight loss
Deep learning
Differential equations
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-88810-x
work_keys_str_mv AT jiachensun predictingdiseaseprogressionfromtherateofbodyweightchangeinnasopharyngealcarcinomapatientduringradiotherapy
AT saikitedmondlam predictingdiseaseprogressionfromtherateofbodyweightchangeinnasopharyngealcarcinomapatientduringradiotherapy
AT xinzhiteng predictingdiseaseprogressionfromtherateofbodyweightchangeinnasopharyngealcarcinomapatientduringradiotherapy
AT jiangzhang predictingdiseaseprogressionfromtherateofbodyweightchangeinnasopharyngealcarcinomapatientduringradiotherapy
AT franciskarholee predictingdiseaseprogressionfromtherateofbodyweightchangeinnasopharyngealcarcinomapatientduringradiotherapy
AT celiawaiyiyip predictingdiseaseprogressionfromtherateofbodyweightchangeinnasopharyngealcarcinomapatientduringradiotherapy
AT jameschunghangchow predictingdiseaseprogressionfromtherateofbodyweightchangeinnasopharyngealcarcinomapatientduringradiotherapy
AT victorhofunlee predictingdiseaseprogressionfromtherateofbodyweightchangeinnasopharyngealcarcinomapatientduringradiotherapy
AT yingsun predictingdiseaseprogressionfromtherateofbodyweightchangeinnasopharyngealcarcinomapatientduringradiotherapy
AT jingcai predictingdiseaseprogressionfromtherateofbodyweightchangeinnasopharyngealcarcinomapatientduringradiotherapy