Multimodal Machine Learning-Based Ductal Carcinoma in situ Prediction from Breast Fibromatosis

Objective: To develop a clinical-radiomics model using a multimodal machine learning method for distinguishing ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) from breast fibromatosis.
Methods: The clinical factors, ultrasound features, and related ultrasound images of 306 patients (198 DCIS patients) were retrospectively collected. Patients in the development and validation cohort were 184 and 122, respectively. The independent clinical and ultrasound factors identified by the multivariable logistic regression analysis were used for the clinical-ultrasound model construction. Then, the region of interest of breast lesions was delineated and radiomics features were extracted. Six machine learning algorithms were trained to develop a radiomics model. The algorithm with higher and more stable prediction ability was chosen to convert the output of the results into the Radscore. Further, the independent clinical predictors and Radscore were enrolled into the logistic regression analysis to generate a combined clinical-radiomics model. The receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, DeLong test, and decision curve analysis were adopted to compare the prediction ability and clinical efficacy of three different models.
Results: Among the six classifiers, logistic regression model was selected as the final radiomics model. Besides, the combined clinical-radiomics model exhibited a superior ability in distinguishing DCIS from breast fibromatosis to the clinical-ultrasound model and the radiomics model.
Conclusion: The combined model by integrating clinical-ultrasound factors and radiomics features performed well in predicting DCIS, which might promote prompt interventions to improve the early diagnosis and prognosis of the patients.

Keywords: multimodal machine learning, clinical-ultrasound features, radiomics, ductal carcinoma in situ