Radiomics in predicting mutation status for thyroid cancer: A preliminary study using radiomics features for predicting BRAFV600E mutations in papillary thyroid carcinoma.

PURPOSE: To evaluate whether if ultrasonography (US)-based radiomics enables prediction of the presence of BRAFV600E mutations among patients diagnosed as papillary thyroid carcninoma (PTC).

METHODS

From December 2015 to May 2017, 527 patients who had been treated surgically for PTC were included (training: 387, validation: 140). All patients had BRAFV600E mutation analysis performed on surgical specimen. Feature extraction was performed using preoperative US images of the 527 patients (mean size of PTC: 16.4mm±7.9, range, 10-85 mm). A Radiomics Score was generated by using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression model. Univariable/multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate the factors including Radiomics Score in predicting BRAFV600E mutation. Subgroup analysis including conventional PTC <20-mm (n = 389) was performed (training: 280, validation: 109).

RESULTS

Of the 527 patients diagnosed with PTC, 428 (81.2%) were positive and 99 (18.8%) were negative for BRAFV600E mutation. In both total 527 cancers and 389 conventional PTC<20-mm, Radiomics Score was the single factor showing significant association to the presence of BRAFV600E mutation on multivariable analysis (all P<0.05). C-statistics for the validation set in the total cancers and the conventional PTCs<20-mm were lower than that of the training set: 0.629 (95% CI: 0.516-0.742) to 0.718 (95% CI: 0.650-0.786), and 0.567 (95% CI: 0.434-0.699) to 0.729 (95% CI: 0.632-0.826), respectively.

CONCLUSION

Radiomics features extracted from US has limited value as a non-invasive biomarker for predicting the presence of BRAFV600E mutation status of PTC regardless of size.