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. 2024 Aug;129(8):1197-1214.
doi: 10.1007/s11547-024-01853-4. Epub 2024 Jul 17.

Delta radiomics: an updated systematic review

Valerio Nardone  1 , Alfonso Reginelli  2 , Dino Rubini  2 , Federico Gagliardi  2 , Sara Del Tufo  2 , Maria Paola Belfiore  2 , Luca Boldrini  3 , Isacco Desideri  4 , Salvatore Cappabianca  2
Affiliations

Delta radiomics: an updated systematic review

Valerio Nardone et al. Radiol Med. 2024 Aug.

Abstract

Background: Radiomics can provide quantitative features from medical imaging that can be correlated with various biological features and diverse clinical endpoints. Delta radiomics, on the other hand, consists in the analysis of feature variation at different acquisition time points, usually before and after therapy. The aim of this study was to provide a systematic review of the different delta radiomics approaches.

Methods: Eligible articles were searched in Embase, Pubmed, and ScienceDirect using a search string that included free text and/or Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) with 3 key search terms: 'radiomics,' 'texture,' and 'delta.' Studies were analyzed using QUADAS-2 and the RQS tool.

Results: Forty-eight studies were finally included. The studies were divided into preclinical/methodological (5 studies, 10.4%); rectal cancer (6 studies, 12.5%); lung cancer (12 studies, 25%); sarcoma (5 studies, 10.4%); prostate cancer (3 studies, 6.3%), head and neck cancer (6 studies, 12.5%); gastrointestinal malignancies excluding rectum (7 studies, 14.6%) and other disease sites (4 studies, 8.3%). The median RQS of all studies was 25% (mean 21% ± 12%), with 13 studies (30.2%) achieving a quality score < 10% and 22 studies (51.2%) < 25%.

Conclusions: Delta radiomics shows potential benefit for several clinical endpoints in oncology, such asdifferential diagnosis, prognosis and prediction of treatment response, evaluation of side effects. Nevertheless, the studies included in this systematic review suffer from the bias of overall low methodological rigor, so that the conclusions are currently heterogeneous, not robust and hardly replicable. Further research with prospective and multicenter studies is needed for the clinical validation of delta radiomics approaches.

Keywords: Delta radiomics; Meta-analysis; Oncology; Precision medicine; Radiomics; Radiotherapy; Texture analysis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Isacco Desideri is an Editor in this Journal. All the authors have no other relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flowchart of the study. GI: gastrointestinal cancer. HN: head and neck cancer. * GI excludes rectal cancer that are treated in another paragraph
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Grouped bar graphs of risk of bias and applicability concerns for the included diagnosis-related studies using QUADAS-2
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Boxplot of RQS percentage of clinical trials included in the meta-analysis by year of publication
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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