Effect of chemotherapy on prognosis in patients with primary pancreatic signet ring cell carcinoma: A large real-world study based on machine learning

Background Primary pancreatic signet ring cell carcinoma (PSRCC), an extremely rare histologic variant of pancreatic cancer, has a poor prognosis. This study aimed to investigate the prognostic value of chemotherapy in PSRCC. Methods Patients with PSRCC between 2000 and 2019 were identified using the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database. The main outcomes in this study were cancer-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS). The baseline characteristics of patients were compared using Pearson’s Chi-square test. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to generate the survival curves. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO), univariate and multivariate Cox regression models, and Random Survival Forest model were used to analyze the prognostic variables for OS and CSS. The variance inflation factors (VIFs) were used to analyze whether there was an overfitting problem. Results A total of 588 patients were identified. Chemotherapy was an independent prognostic factor for OS and CSS, and significantly associated with OS (HR = 0.33, 95% CI = 0.27–0.40, P <0.001) and CSS (HR = 0.32, 95% CI = 0.26–0.39, P <0.001). Conclusions Chemotherapy showed beneficial effects on OS and CSS in patients with PSRCC and should be recommended in clinical practice.