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Imaging biomarkers and radiomics in pediatric oncology: a view from the PRIMAGE (PRedictive In silico Multiscale Analytics to support cancer personalized diaGnosis and prognosis, Empowered by imaging biomarkers) project

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Abstract

This review paper presents the practical development of imaging biomarkers in the scope of the PRIMAGE (PRedictive In silico Multiscale Analytics to support cancer personalized diaGnosis and prognosis, Empowered by imaging biomarkers) project, as a noninvasive and reliable way to improve the diagnosis and prognosis in pediatric oncology. The PRIMAGE project is a European multi-center research initiative that focuses on developing medical imaging-derived artificial intelligence (AI) solutions designed to enhance overall management and decision-making for two types of pediatric cancer: neuroblastoma and diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma. To allow this, the PRIMAGE project has created an open-cloud platform that combines imaging, clinical, and molecular data together with AI models developed from this data, creating a comprehensive decision support environment for clinicians managing patients with these two cancers. In order to achieve this, a standardized data processing and analysis workflow was implemented to generate robust and reliable predictions for different clinical endpoints. Magnetic resonance (MR) image harmonization and registration was performed as part of the workflow. Subsequently, an automated tool for the detection and segmentation of tumors was trained and internally validated. The Dice similarity coefficient obtained for the independent validation dataset was 0.997, indicating compatibility with the manual segmentation variability. Following this, radiomics and deep features were extracted and correlated with clinical endpoints. Finally, reproducible and relevant imaging quantitative features were integrated with clinical and molecular data to enrich both the predictive models and a set of visual analytics tools, making the PRIMAGE platform a complete clinical decision aid system. In order to ensure the advancement of research in this field and to foster engagement with the wider research community, the PRIMAGE data repository and platform are currently being integrated into the European Federation for Cancer Images (EUCAIM), which is the largest European cancer imaging research infrastructure created to date.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from PRIMAGE project but restrictions apply to the availability of these data. Data is however available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission of PRIMAGE project.

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Acknowledgements

PRIMAGE project consortium collaborators: Ulrike Pötschger, PhD, Sabine Taschner-Mandl, PhD, Emanuele Neri, MD, Adela Cañete, MD, PhD, Ruth Ladenstein, MD, PhD, Barbara Hero, MD, Ángel Alberich Bayarri, PhD.

Funding

This project has received funding from the European Union’s horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 826494.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Grupo de Investigación Biomédica en Imagen, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria La Fe, Avenida Fernando Abril Martorell, 106 Torre A planta 7, 46026, Valencia, Spain

    Diana Veiga-Canuto, Leonor Cerdá Alberich, Matías Fernández-Patón, Ana Miguel Blanco & Luis Martí-Bonmatí

  2. Área Clínica de Imagen Médica, Área Clínica de Imagen Médica, Hospital Universitari i Politècnic La Fe, Avinguda Fernando Abril Martorell, 106 Torre E planta 0, 46026, València, Spain

    Diana Veiga-Canuto, Cinta Sangüesa Nebot & Luis Martí-Bonmatí

  3. Quantitative Imaging Biomarkers in Medicine, QUIBIM SL, Valencia, Spain

    Ana Jiménez Pastor & Jose Lozano-Montoya

  4. Pediatric Oncology Department, Hospital Universitario y Politécnico La Fe, Avenida Fernando Abril Martorell, 106 Torre G planta 2, 46026, Valencia, Spain

    Blanca Martínez de las Heras

Authors
  1. Diana Veiga-Canuto
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  2. Leonor Cerdá Alberich
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  3. Matías Fernández-Patón
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  4. Ana Jiménez Pastor
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  5. Jose Lozano-Montoya
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  6. Ana Miguel Blanco
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  7. Blanca Martínez de las Heras
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  8. Cinta Sangüesa Nebot
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  9. Luis Martí-Bonmatí
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Consortia

PRIMAGE Project consortium

Contributions

L.M.B. conceived, supervised, and supported the study. D.V.C., L.C.A., M.F.P., A.J.P., and J.L.M. collated and analyzed the data and performed the formal analysis. D.V.C, L.C.A., and M.F.P. drafted the initial manuscript. A.J.P., J.L.M., A.M.B., B.M.dH, C.S.N., and L.M.B. reviewed and edited the manuscript. D.V.C. and C.S.N. segmented the images. All authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Diana Veiga-Canuto.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study has been approved by the Hospital’s Ethics Committee (The Ethics Committee for Investigation with medicinal products of the University and Polytechnic La Fe Hospital, ethic code: 2018/0228).

Conflicts of interest

A.J.P. and J.L.M. are employees of the company QUIBIM SL.

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Veiga-Canuto, D., Cerdá Alberich, L., Fernández-Patón, M. et al. Imaging biomarkers and radiomics in pediatric oncology: a view from the PRIMAGE (PRedictive In silico Multiscale Analytics to support cancer personalized diaGnosis and prognosis, Empowered by imaging biomarkers) project. Pediatr Radiol 54, 562–570 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00247-023-05770-y

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