Using rADioMIcs and machine learning with ultrasonography for the differential diagnosis of myometRiAL tumors (the ADMIRAL pilot study). Radiomics and differential diagnosis of myometrial tumors

Objective: To develop and evaluate the performance of a radiomics and machine learning model applied to ultrasound (US) images in predicting the risk of malignancy of a uterine mesenchymal lesion.

Methods: Single-center retrospective evaluation of consecutive patients who underwent surgery for a malignant uterine mesenchymal lesion (sarcoma) and a control group of patients operated on for a benign uterine mesenchymal lesion (myoma). Radiomics was applied to US preoperative images according to the International Biomarker Standardization Initiative guidelines to create, validate and test a classification model for the differential diagnosis of myometrial tumors. The TRACE4 radiomic platform was used thus obtaining a full-automatic radiomic workflow. Definitive histology was considered as gold standard. Accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, AUC and standard deviation of the created classification model were defined.

Results: A total of 70 women with uterine mesenchymal lesions were recruited (20 with histological diagnosis of sarcoma and 50 myomas). Three hundred and nineteen radiomics IBSI-compliant features were extracted and 308 radiomics features were found stable. Different machine learning classifiers were created and the best classification system showed Accuracy 0.85 ± 0.01, Sensitivity 0.80 ± 0.01, Specificity 0.87 ± 0.01, AUC 0.86 ± 0.03.

Conclusions: Radiomics applied to US images shows a great potential in differential diagnosis of mesenchymal tumors, thus representing an interesting decision support tool for the gynecologist oncologist in an area often characterized by uncertainty.