Radiomic biomarkers informative of cancerous transformation in neurofibromatosis-1 plexiform tumors

• Published in: Journal of neuroradiology 2019-05, Vol.46 (3), p.179-185
• Main Authors: Uthoff, J., De Stefano, F.A., Panzer, K., Darbro, B.W., Sato, T.S., Khanna, R., Quelle, D.E., Meyerholz, D.K., Weimer, J., Sieren, J.C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biomarkers, Tumor - analysis; Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; Diagnosis, Differential; Female; Humans; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor; Nerve Sheath Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging; Nerve Sheath Neoplasms - pathology; Neurofibromatosis 1 - diagnostic imaging; Neurofibromatosis 1 - pathology; Plexiform neurofibroma; Positron emission tomography; Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography; Quantitative feature extraction; Reproducibility of Results; Retrospective Studies; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0150-9861
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neurad.2018.05.006

This study explores whether objective, quantitative radiomic biomarkers derived from magnetic resonance (MR), positron emission tomography (PET), and computed tomography (CT) may be useful in reliably distinguishing malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNST) from benign plexiform neurofibromas (PN). A registration and segmentation pipeline was established using a cohort of NF1 patients with histopathological diagnosis of PN or MPNST, and medical imaging of the PN including MR and PET-CT. The corrected MR datasets were registered to the corresponding PET-CT via landmark-based registration. PET standard-uptake value (SUV) thresholds were used to guide segmentation of volumes of interest: MPNST-associated PET-hot regions (SUV≥3.5) and PN-associated PET-elevated regions (2.0