Development and external validation of prognostic nomograms for liver disease-free and overall survival in locally advanced rectal cancer with neoadjuvant therapy: a post cohort study based on the FOWARC trial

Jiaming Zhou; Tuoyang Li; Yuanlv Xiao; Jinxin Lin; Xiaoqiong Chen; Shaoyong Peng; Mingzhe Huang; Xuebin Shi; Linbin Cai; Pinzhu Huang; Meijin Huang

doi:10.21037/atm-22-2790

Development and external validation of prognostic nomograms for liver disease-free and overall survival in locally advanced rectal cancer with neoadjuvant therapy: a post cohort study based on the FOWARC trial

Ann Transl Med. 2022 Jun;10(12):694. doi: 10.21037/atm-22-2790.

Authors

Jiaming Zhou^#^{1

2}, Tuoyang Li^#^{1

2}, Yuanlv Xiao^#³, Jinxin Lin^{1

2}, Xiaoqiong Chen¹, Shaoyong Peng^{1

2}, Mingzhe Huang^{1

2}, Xuebin Shi^{1

2}, Linbin Cai^{1

2}, Pinzhu Huang⁴, Meijin Huang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Colon and Rectum Surgery, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
² Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Colorectal and Pelvic Floor Disease, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
³ Department of General Surgery, Panyu Central Hospital, Guangzhou, China.
⁴ Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: There is still a lack of nomograms that can accurately predict liver metastasis and poor prognosis after neoadjuvant therapy for locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC). Effective nomograms may help clinicians better identify LARC patients with potential high-risk risks, so as to carry out more targeted monitoring, treatment and follow-up.

Methods: The nomograms were based on the FOWARC trial (NCT01211210), which included 302 LARC patients who underwent neoadjuvant treatment before surgery at the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University from 2011 to 2014. The predictive accuracy and discriminative ability of the nomograms were determined by the concordance index (C-index) and calibration curve. The results were validated using bootstrap resampling and a prospective study on 100 patients in 2017.

Results: The 3-year liver disease-free survival (LDFS) rate after neoadjuvant treatment for LARC was 91.65% (training cohort 92.22%, validation cohort 90.01%). Factors associated with LDFS were hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, anemia, lymph node number, postoperative T stage and tumor nodule, which were all included in the nomogram for LDFS. The C-indies of the nomogram for LDFS were 0.828 and 0.845 in the training and validation cohorts. The 3-year overall survival (OS) rate was 94.14% (training cohort 94.13%, validation cohort 94.05%). Factors in the nomogram for OS were mesorectal fascia involvement (MRF), postoperative N stage, pathological differentiation, tumor nodule and neural invasion. The C-indies of the nomogram for predicting OS were 0.73 and 0.774 in the training and validation cohorts. The calibration curve for the survival probability showed good agreement between the nomogram predictions and the actual observations.

Conclusions: The nomograms established in this study can effectively predict LDFS and has good clinical application potential for OS in LARC patients treated with neoadjuvant therapy.

Keywords: HBV infection; Locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC); liver metastasis; neoadjuvant therapy; nomogram.