Radiomics as a New Frontier of Imaging for Cancer Prognosis: A Narrative Review

Abstract

The evaluation of the efficacy of different therapies is of paramount importance for the patients and the clinicians in oncology, and it is usually possible by performing imaging investigations that are interpreted, taking in consideration different response evaluation criteria. In the last decade, texture analysis (TA) has been developed in order to help the radiologist to quantify and identify parameters related to tumor heterogeneity, which cannot be appreciated by the naked eye, that can be correlated with different endpoints, including cancer prognosis. The aim of this work is to analyze the impact of texture in the prediction of response and in prognosis stratification in oncology, taking into consideration different pathologies (lung cancer, breast cancer, gastric cancer, hepatic cancer, rectal cancer). Key references were derived from a PubMed query. Hand searching and clinicaltrials.gov were also used. This paper contains a narrative report and a critical discussion of radiomics approaches related to cancer prognosis in different fields of diseases.

Enhanced CT-based radiomics predicts pathological complete response after neoadjuvant chemotherapy for advanced adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction: a two-center study

“…Along with traditional CT-based response evaluation, the radiomics method has great potential for revealing deep imaging information. The method adopts a combined medical-industrial approach to transform traditional images into deep-level digital quantitative features; the technique can be used to uncover the potential biological characteristics and heterogeneity within the tumor using the imaging data and to provide information beyond the morphological and functional characteristics of the tumor [19][20][21][22]. Several radiomics-based studies regarding the neoadjuvant treatment of esophageal and gastric cancers have been reported [3,4,[23][24][25].…”

Diffusion-weighted imaging and apparent diffusion coefficient mapping of head and neck lymph node metastasis: a systematic review

“…DWI is also usually performed along with traditional MRI sequences offering higher resolution; more advanced MRI devices operating with higher intensity magnetic fields offer the prospect of higher resolution images [55]. Finally, the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based solutions in healthcare has already begun to change established paradigms across the entire healthcare sector [56][57][58][59][60]. Further studies will also be needed to address the relatively new field of radionics, in particular as applied to MRI and DWI.…”

Precision Imaging Guidance in the Era of Precision Oncology: An Update of Imaging Tools for Interventional Procedures

“…The ability to join clinical and imaging pre-procedural data, radiomics [ 137 , 138 ], and genetic information may improve the precision of decision making and be a helpful tool in risk assessment, patient triage, and outcome prediction [ 139 ].…”