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Radiomics of hepatocellular carcinoma: promising roles in patient selection, prediction, and assessment of treatment response

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Abstract

Radiomics refers to the process of conversion of conventional medical images into quantifiable data (“features”) which can be further mined to reveal complex patterns and relationships between the voxels in the image. These high throughput features can potentially reflect the histology of biologic tissues at macroscopic and microscopic levels. Several studies have investigated radiomics of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) before and after treatment. HCC is a heterogeneous disease with diverse phenotypical and genotypical landscape. Due to this inherent heterogeneity, HCC lesions can manifest variable aggressiveness with different response to treatment options, including the newer targeted therapies. Hence, radiomics can be used as a potential tool to enable patient selection for therapies and to predict response to treatments and outcome. Additionally, radiomics may serve as a tool for earlier and more efficient assessment of response to treatment. Radiomics, radiogenomics, and radio-immunoprofiling and their potential roles in management of patients with HCC will be discussed and critically reviewed in this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, 676 N. Saint Clair Street, Suite 800, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA

    Amir A. Borhani, Roberta Catania & Yuri S. Velichko

  2. BioMedical Engineering and Imaging Institute, Icahn School of Medicine At Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA

    Stefanie Hectors, Bachir Taouli & Sara Lewis

  3. Department of Diagnostic, Molecular and Interventional Radiology, Icahn School of Medicine At Mount Sinai, 1Gustave L. Levy Place, New York, NY, 1470, USA

    Stefanie Hectors, Bachir Taouli & Sara Lewis

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  1. Amir A. Borhani
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  2. Roberta Catania
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Borhani, A.A., Catania, R., Velichko, Y.S. et al. Radiomics of hepatocellular carcinoma: promising roles in patient selection, prediction, and assessment of treatment response. Abdom Radiol 46, 3674–3685 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-021-03085-w

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