¹⁸F-Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography-Based Risk Score Model for Prediction of Five-Year Survival Outcome after Curative Resection of Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer

The aim of our retrospective study is to develop and assess an imaging-based model utilizing ¹⁸F-FDG PET parameters for predicting the five-year survival in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients after curative surgery. A total of 361 NSCLC patients who underwent curative surgery were assigned to the training set (n = 253) and the test set (n = 108). The LASSO regression model was used to construct a PET-based risk score for predicting five-year survival. A hybrid model that combined the PET-based risk score and clinical variables was developed using multivariate logistic regression analysis. The predictive performance was determined by the area under the curve (AUC). The individual features with the best predictive performances were co-occurrence_contrast (AUC = 0.675) and SUL peak (AUC = 0.671). The PET-based risk score was identified as an independent predictor after adjusting for clinical variables (OR 5.231, 95% CI 1.987–6.932; p = 0.009). The hybrid model, which integrated clinical variables, significantly outperformed the PET-based risk score alone in predictive accuracy (AUC = 0.771 vs. 0.696, p = 0.022), a finding that was consistent in the test set. The PET-based risk score, especially when integrated with clinical variables, demonstrates good predictive ability for five-year survival in NSCLC patients following curative surgery.