Radiomics features from multiparametric MRI exams can predict prostate cancer metastases: Study

USA: A recent study revealed that radiomics features extracted from multiparametric MRI exams can help to predict prostate cancer metastatic risk. The study findings, presented at the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) meeting held in London, U.K. imply how prostate cancer circulating tumor cells negatively affect patient outcomes. 

"Circulating tumor cells are cancer cells detectable in the peripheral blood released by the tumor," , presenter Mohammad Alhusseini, PhD, of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in Florida said. "[They] constitute seeds for subsequent growth of additional tumor metastases, triggering a mechanism that is responsible for many cancer-related deaths."

The team explained that the number of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) is an indicator of metastatic risk in prostate cancer and is a meaningful biomarker. "Quantitative multiparametric MRI features in prostate cancer are associated with tumor aggressiveness," Alhusseini said.

The researchers aimed to explore any links between radiomic features from multiparametric MRI of the prostate and circulating tumor cell counts in 73 prostate cancer patients. They developed and trained a neural network algorithm to predict circulating tumor cell counts (with a threshold of five or more CTCs indicating risk of metastatic disease). 100 training and testing runs of five-fold cross-validation were conducted by the team, measuring results using the area under the receiver operating curve (AUC).