The study of correlation between radiation pneumonitis and the variation of CT-based radiomics features / 中华放射肿瘤学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the changes of the parameters related to planning and re-planning CT imaging features in lung cancer patients presenting with radiation pneumonitis ( RP) by using radiomics technique,and identify the parameters intimately related to the incidence of RP. Methods A total of 31 lung cancer patients who were diagnosed with grade ≥ 2 RP after receiving radiation therapy were selected in this study. For each patient, planning CT images before radiation therapy and re-planning CT images after 40 Gy radiation therapy were obtained. The affected and contralateral lungs were considered as the region of interest (ROI).After the automatic segmentation of normal lung tissues,the parameters related to radiomics features were extracted from ROI by using radiomics software. The differences of these parameters between planning and re-planning CT images were statistically compared. Results ( 1 ) For unilateral lung within each time interval,86 parameters related to radiomics features were extracted; ( 2) Twenty-two parameters significantly differed between the affected and contralateral lungs prior to radiotherapy;(3) Twelve parameters significantly differed between the affected and contralateral lungs on re-planning CT images;(4) Twenty-eight parameters significantly differed in the affected lung before and after radiation therapy;(5) Twenty-eight parameters significantly differed in the contralateral lung before and after radiation therapy. Conclusions The CT imaging radiomics features significantly differ between planning and re-planning CT scan in partial lung cancer patients presenting with RP.Monitoring the dynamic changes of these parameters plays a potential role in predicting the incidence of RP.