title: Performance evaluation of 4 measuring methods of ground-glass opacities for predicting the 5-year relapse-free survival of patients with peripheral nonsmall cell lung cancer: a multicenter study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the performance of 4 methods of measuring the extent of ground-glass opacities as a means of predicting the 5-year relapse-free survival of patients with peripheral nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSLC).
  
  
  METHODS
  Ground-glass opacities on thin-section computed tomographic images of 120 peripheral NSLCs were measured at 7 medical institutions by the length, area, modified length, and vanishing ratio (VR) methods. The performance (Az) of each method in predicting the 5-year relapse-free survival was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean Az value obtained by the length, area, modified length, and VR methods in the receiver operating characteristic analyses was 0.683, 0.702, 0.728, and 0.784, respectively. The differences between the mean Az value obtained by the VR method and by the other 3 methods were significant.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Vanishing ratio method was the most accurate predictor of the 5-year relapse-free survival of patients with peripheral NSLC.
authors.affiliation: National Cancer Hospital East, Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan. rkaki@ncc.go.jp
authors.forename: Ryutaro
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kakinuma
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kodama
authors.forename: Kouzo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yokoyama
authors.forename: Shuji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Adachi
authors.forename: Kiyoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mori
authors.forename: Yasuro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fukuyama
authors.forename: Yasuro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fukuda
authors.forename: Keiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kuriyama
authors.forename: Junichi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Oda
authors.forename: Junji
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Oda
authors.forename: Masayuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Noguchi
authors.forename: Yoshihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Matsuno
authors.forename: Tomoyuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yokose
authors.forename: Hironobu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ohmatsu
authors.forename: Yutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nishiwaki
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000401:mortality*; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000401:mortality*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012372:ROC Curve; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed