Fig. 5

The developed clinical-primary lesion radiomics-peripheral lymph node radiomics nomogram for predicting the probability of lymph node metastases. For age, the number represents the age number. For M stage, 0 represents no distant metastasis while 1 represents distant metastasis. For the preCA19-9, 0 represents within the normal value while 1 represents above the normal value. For the preCEA, 0 represents within the normal value while 1 represents above the normal value. For the grade, 1 for high-middle differentiation and 0 for middle-low differentiation. To use, locate the patient’s age, draw a line straight up to the points axis to establish the score associated with that site. Repeat for the other covariates (M stage, preCA19-9, preCEA, grade and radiomics features). By summing the scores of each point and locating on the total score scale, the estimated probability of lymph node metastases could be determined