Open AccessExploring MRI based radiomics analysis of intratumoral spatial heterogeneity in locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma treated with intensity modulated radiotherapy
Author(s) -
Farhan Akram,
Ping En Koh,
Fuqiang Wang,
Siqin Zhou,
Sze Huey Tan,
Mahsa Paknezhad,
So Jeong Park,
Tiffany Hennedige,
Choon Hua Thng,
Hwee Kuan Lee,
Kiattisa Sommat
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0240043
Subject(s) - radiomics , medicine , radiation therapy , nasopharyngeal carcinoma , wilcoxon signed rank test , magnetic resonance imaging , radiology , nuclear medicine , rank correlation , mann–whitney u test , mathematics , statistics
Background We hypothesized that spatial heterogeneity exists between recurrent and non-recurrent regions within a tumor. The aim of this study was to determine if there is a difference between radiomics features derived from recurrent versus non recurrent regions within the tumor based on pre-treatment MRI. Methods A total of 14 T4NxM0 NPC patients with histologically proven “in field” recurrence in the post nasal space following curative intent IMRT were included in this study. Pretreatment MRI were co-registered with MRI at the time of recurrence for the delineation of gross tumor volume at diagnosis(GTV) and at recurrence(GTVr). A total of 7 histogram features and 40 texture features were computed from the recurrent(GTVr) and non-recurrent region(GTV-GTVr). Paired t-tests and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were carried out on the 47 quantified radiomics features. Results A total of 7 features were significantly different between recurrent and non-recurrent regions. Other than the variance from intensity-based histogram, the remaining six significant features were either from the gray-level size zone matrix (GLSZM) or the neighbourhood gray-tone difference matrix (NGTDM). Conclusions The radiomic features extracted from pre-treatment MRI can potentially reflect the difference between recurrent and non-recurrent regions within a tumor and has a potential role in pre-treatment identification of intra-tumoral radio-resistance for selective dose escalation.