Background: Radiomics represents an emerging field of precision-medicine. Its application in head and neck is still at the beginning.
Methods: Retrospective study about magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) based radiomics in oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC) surgically treated (2010-2019; 79 patients). All preoperative MRIs include different sequences (T1, T2, DWI, ADC). Tumor volume was manually segmented and exported to radiomic-software, to perform feature extraction. Statistically significant variables were included in multivariable analysis and related to survival endpoints. Predictive models were elaborated (clinical, radiomic, clinical-radiomic models) and compared using C-index.
Results: In almost all clinical-radiomic models radiomic-score maintained statistical significance. In all cases C-index was higher in clinical-radiomic models than in clinical ones. ADC provided the best fit to the models (C-index 0.98, 0.86, 0.84 in loco-regional recurrence, cause-specific mortality, overall survival, respectively).
Conclusion: MRI-based radiomics in OTSCC represents a promising noninvasive method of precision medicine, improving prognosis prediction before surgery.
Keywords: mobile tongue cancer; oral cavity tumor; precision medicine; prognosis prediction; radiomics.
© 2023 The Authors. Head & Neck published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.