Incremental prognostic value and underlying biological pathways of radiomics patterns in medulloblastoma

EBioMedicine. 2020 Nov:61:103093. doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2020.103093. Epub 2020 Oct 21.

Abstract

Background: To develop a radiomics signature for predicting overall survival (OS)/progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with medulloblastoma (MB), and to investigate the incremental prognostic value and biological pathways of the radiomics patterns.

Methods: A radiomics signature was constructed based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) from a training cohort (n = 83), and evaluated on a testing cohort (n = 83). Key pathways associated with the signature were identified by RNA-seq (GSE151519). Prognostic value of pathway genes was assessed in a public GSE85218 cohort.

Findings: The radiomics-clinicomolecular signature predicted OS (C-index 0.762) and PFS (C-index 0.697) better than either the radiomics signature (C-index: OS: 0.649; PFS: 0.593) or the clinicomolecular signature (C-index: OS: 0.725; PFS: 0.691) alone, with a better calibration and classification accuracy (net reclassification improvement: OS: 0.298, P = 0.022; PFS: 0.252, P = 0.026). Nine pathways were significantly correlated with the radiomics signature. Average expression value of pathway genes achieved significant risk stratification in GSE85218 cohort (log-rank P = 0.016).

Interpretation: This study demonstrated radiomics signature, which associated with dysregulated pathways, was an independent parameter conferring incremental value over clinicomolecular factors in survival predictions for MB patients.

Funding: A full list of funding bodies that contributed to this study can be found in the Acknowledgements section.

Keywords: Medulloblastoma; Molecular; Pathway; Prognosis; Radiomics.

MeSH terms

  • Biomarkers*
  • Clinical Decision-Making
  • Computational Biology / methods
  • Disease Management
  • Humans
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / methods
  • Kaplan-Meier Estimate
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging* / methods
  • Medulloblastoma / diagnostic imaging*
  • Medulloblastoma / metabolism*
  • Medulloblastoma / mortality
  • Prognosis
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Signal Transduction*

Substances

  • Biomarkers