Radiomics and PD-L1 expression predict immunotherapy benefits in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Aim: To evaluate the performance of MRI-derived radiomic risk score (RRS) and PD-L1 expression to predict overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) of patients with recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma receiving nivolumab therapy. Materials & methods: Three hundred forty radiomic features from pretreatment MRI were used to construct the RRS. The integrated area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (iAUC) was calculated to evaluate the performance of the RRS and PD-L1. Results: The RRS showed iAUCs of 0.69 and 0.57 for OS and PFS, respectively. PD-L1 expression showed iAUCs of 0.61 and 0.62 for OS and PFS, respectively. Conclusion: RRS and PD-L1 potentially predict the OS and PFS of patients with recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma receiving nivolumab therapy.