Radiomics: Big Data statt Biopsie in der Zukunft?

Abstract

Precision medicine is increasingly pushed forward, also with respect to upcoming new targeted therapies. Individual characterization of diseases on the basis of biomarkers is a prerequisite for this development. So far, biomarkers are characterized clinically, histologically or on a molecular level. The implementation of broad screening methods ("Omics") and the analysis of big data - in addition to single markers - allow to define biomarker signatures. Next to "Genomics", "Proteomics", and "Metabolicis", "Radiomics" gained increasing interest during the last years. Based on radiologic imaging, multiple radiomic markers are extracted with the help of specific algorithms. These are correlated with clinical, (immuno-) histopathological, or genomic data. Underlying structural differences are based on the imaging metadata and are often not visible and therefore not detectable without specific software. Radiomics are depicted numerically or by graphs. The fact that radiomic information can be extracted from routinely performed imaging adds a specific appeal to this method. Radiomics could potentially replace biopsies and additional investigations. Alternatively, radiomics could complement other biomarkers and thus lead to a more precise, multimodal prediction. Until now, radiomics are primarily used to investigate solid tumors. Some promising studies in head and neck cancer have already been published.

Radiomics in Hypopharyngeal Cancer Management: A State-of-the-Art Review

“…The suffix “omics” is used to describe various sources of large volumes of data, being added to a name that characterizes the original materials for data collection. In line with this, the “radiomics” field finds its way into clinical research when large amounts of data from radiological imaging (intensity, shape, and texture) become available for analysis [ 33 ]. Specifically, texture analysis represents a set of tools to improve the characterization of tumor heterogeneity and consists in extracting texture indices from imaging modalities such as CT, MRI, and PET/CT [ 34 ].…”

Prognostic Assessment of Gastropancreatic Neuroendocrine Neoplasm: Prospects and limits of Radiomics

“…The standardization and retrospective nature of these studies are critical issues [ 145 , 146 , 147 , 148 , 149 , 150 , 151 , 152 , 153 , 154 , 155 , 156 , 157 ]. Of note, most of the available reports are focused on pancreatic NETs, and almost completely lacking any assessment of prognosis and long-term outcomes [ 18 ].…”

Radiomics and Texture Analysis in Laryngeal Cancer. Looking for New Frontiers in Precision Medicine through Imaging Analysis

“…The aim of precision medicine is to accurately define diseases in order to find personalized and individual therapies. This approach should improve healing, reducing the spectrum of side effects [3]. Large data volumes are acquired during the disease evolution, thus providing various options for the definition of appropriate biomarkers or marker patterns in different stages of the disease, on different steps of the analysis, and of most diverse materials and data sources.…”

“…This leads, for example, to the description of the “genomics” in the context of genetic expression analysis, and protein analyses become “proteomics” or “metabolomics” when the metabolome is analyzed. In analogy, the newly defined “radiomics” field finds its way into clinical research where a large amount of data from radiological imaging become available for analysis [3].…”