The Prognosis and Immune Microenvironment Related Factor Interleukin-23 in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma: A Radiological Investigation

Urol J. 2022 Nov 8;19(5):363-370. doi: 10.22037/uj.v18i.6825.

Abstract

Purpose: To explore the ccRCC clinical and immune characteristics correlated with IL-23 expression level and build pre-operative prediction models based on contrast CT scans.

Materials and methods: The study included the cancer genome atlas kidney renal clear cell carcinoma cases to build a bioinformatics cohort. The cases with qualified contrast CT images were selected as radiographic and radiomics cohort. The IL-23 expression level groups were defined by median-based thresholding. The clinical characteristics were compared between groups. The impacts of IL-23 on immune microenvironment composition were measured via the CIBERSORT. Two radiologists evaluated the pre-operative contrast CT images. The radiomics features were automatically extracted. IL-23 group-specific radiographic and radiomics features were collected and used for prediction model establishment via Orange Data Mining Toolbox. P < 0.05 was set as statistically significant.

Results: For total, 530 ccRCC cases were included. The IL-23 group was significantly associated with survival, histologic grade, AJCC tumor stage, AJCC cancer stage, and plasma calcium level. Except for Treg and other T cells, IL-23 showed correlation with NK cell, mast cell, monocyte infiltration. Axial length was the only significant radiographic measurement between IL-23 groups. The radiomics features established an IL-23 group prediction model with the highest 10-fold cross-verification AUC of 0.842.

Conclusion: The clear cell renal cell carcinoma IL-23 expression level had prognosis and immune microenvironment correlation and could be predicted by pre-operative radiomics features.

MeSH terms

  • Carcinoma, Renal Cell* / diagnostic imaging
  • Carcinoma, Renal Cell* / pathology
  • Humans
  • Interleukin-23
  • Kidney Neoplasms* / diagnostic imaging
  • Kidney Neoplasms* / pathology
  • Prognosis
  • Tomography, X-Ray Computed / methods
  • Tumor Microenvironment

Substances

  • Interleukin-23