Radiomics: The New Promise for Differentiating Progression, Recurrence, Pseudoprogression, and Radionecrosis in Glioma and Glioblastoma Multiforme

Abstract

Glioma and glioblastoma multiform (GBM) remain among the most debilitating and life-threatening brain tumors. Despite advances in diagnosing approaches, patient follow-up after treatment (surgery and chemoradiation) is still challenging for differentiation between tumor progression/recurrence, pseudoprogression, and radionecrosis. Radiomics emerges as a promising tool in initial diagnosis, grading, and survival prediction in patients with glioma and can help differentiate these post-treatment scenarios. Preliminary published studies are promising about the role of radiomics in post-treatment glioma/GBM. However, this field faces significant challenges, including a lack of evidence-based solid data, scattering publication, heterogeneity of studies, and small sample sizes. The present review explores radiomics’s capabilities in following patients with glioma/GBM status post-treatment and to differentiate tumor progression, recurrence, pseudoprogression, and radionecrosis.

Editorial: Reshaping the diagnostic process in oncology: science versus technology

“…In the spectrum of human cancers, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is characterized by a high degree of intra-tumoral heterogeneity, evident at both microscopic and radiological levels of resolution ( 15 , 16 ). Diffusion Weighted Imaging and dynamic contrast-enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging are two functional MRI modalities routinely utilized in clinical settings for evaluating the properties of GBM tumors.…”