Predicting Response to Chemotherapy in Patients With Newly Diagnosed High-Risk Neuroblastoma: A Report From the International Neuroblastoma Risk Group

Mayampurath A, Ramesh S, Michael D, Liu L, Feinberg N, Granger M, Naranjo A, Cohn SL, Volchenboum SL, Applebaum MA. Predicting Response to Chemotherapy in Patients With Newly Diagnosed High-Risk Neuroblastoma: A Report From the International Neuroblastoma Risk Group. JCO Clin Cancer Inform. 2021 Dec;5:1181-1188. doi: 10.1200/CCI.21.00103. PubMed PMID: 34882497; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8812615.

Metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) scans are a radionucleotide imaging modality that undergo Curie scoring to semiquantitatively assess neuroblastoma burden, which can be used as a marker of therapy response. We hypothesized that a convolutional neural network (CNN) could be developed that uses diagnostic MIBG scans to predict response to induction chemotherapy. We analyzed MIBG scans housed in the International Neuroblastoma Risk Group Data Commons from patients enrolled in the Children’s Oncology Group high-risk neuroblastoma study ANBL12P1. The primary outcome was response to upfront chemotherapy, defined as a Curie score ≤ 2 after four cycles of induction chemotherapy. We derived and validated a CNN using two-dimensional whole-body MIBG scans from diagnosis and evaluated model performance using area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). We also developed a clinical classification model to predict response on the basis of age, stage, and MYCN amplification.