An Introduction To Radiomics: An Evolving Cornerstone Of Precision Medicine

Over the past decade a compelling body of literature has emerged suggesting a more pivotal role for imaging in the diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring of diseases. These advances have facilitated the rise of an emerging practice known as Radiomics: the extraction and analysis of large numbers of quantitative features from medical images to improve disease characterization and prediction of outcome. Our aim is to clarify the potential clinical utility of radiomics specifically in solid tumor cancer care. First, we discuss the clinical processes of cancer management (i.e., diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment). Second, the limitations of the current process are discussed followed by a discourse of the benefits of radiomics. Third, we provide a high-level description of the workflow of radiomics and explain how it relates to biomedical texture analysis. We conclude with a review of the literature in this field and the remaining challenges ahead.