Background: Glioblastoma (GB) is a particularly malignant brain tumour which carries a poor prognosis and presents limited treatment options. MRI is standard practice for differential diagnosis at initial presentation of GB and can assist in both treatment planning and response assessment. MRI radiomics allows for discerning GB features of clinical importance that are not evident by visual analysis, augmenting the morphological and functional tumour characterisation beyond traditional imaging techniques. Given that radiotherapy is part of the standard of care for GB patients, establishing a platform for phenotyping radiation treatment responses using non-invasive methods is of high relevance. Methods: In this study, we modelled the responses to ionising radiation across four orthotopic mouse models of GB using diffusion and perfusion radiomics. We have identified the optimal set of radiomic features that reflect tumour cellularity, microvascularity, and blood flow changes brought about by radiation treatment in these murine orthotopic models of GB, and directly compared them with endpoint histopathological analysis. Results: We showed that the selected radiomic features can quantify textural information and pixel interrelationships of tumour response to radiation therapy, revealing subtle image patterns that may reflect intra-tumoural spatial heterogeneity. When compared to GB patients, similarities in selected radiomic features were noted between orthotopic murine tumours and non-enhancing central tumour areas in patients, along with several discrepancies in tumour cellularity and vascularization, denoted by distinct grey level intensities and nonuniformity metrics. Conclusion: As the field evolves, radiomic profiling of GB may enhance the evaluation of targeted therapeutic strategies, accelerate the development of new therapies, and act as a potential virtual biopsy tool.
背景：胶质母细胞瘤（GB）是一种恶性程度极高的脑肿瘤，预后较差且治疗选择有限。磁共振成像（MRI）是GB初诊时进行鉴别诊断的标准方法，可用于辅助制定治疗方案及评估疗效。MRI影像组学能够识别通过视觉分析难以发现的、具有临床意义的GB特征，从而在传统成像技术基础上增强对肿瘤形态和功能的表征。鉴于放疗是GB患者标准治疗方案的一部分，建立基于无创方法的放疗反应表型分析平台具有重要意义。 方法：本研究利用弥散与灌注影像组学技术，在四种原位小鼠GB模型中模拟了对电离辐射的治疗反应。我们筛选出能够反映辐射治疗引起肿瘤细胞密度、微血管结构和血流变化的最佳影像组学特征组合，并将其与终点组织病理学分析结果进行直接比较。 结果：研究表明，所选影像组学特征能够量化肿瘤对放疗反应的结构信息与像素间关联性，揭示可能反映肿瘤内空间异质性的细微图像模式。与GB患者数据对比发现，小鼠原位肿瘤与患者非强化中央肿瘤区域在部分影像组学特征上具有相似性，同时在肿瘤细胞密度和血管化方面存在若干差异，这些差异通过不同的灰度强度值和非均匀性指标得以体现。 结论：随着该领域的发展，GB的影像组学分析有望提升靶向治疗策略的评估效果，加速新疗法的开发进程，并可能成为潜在的虚拟活检工具。
肿瘤(癌症)患者之家