Identification of radiomic features as an imaging marker to differentiate benign and malignant breast masses based on Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Background: Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers among women globally and early identification is known to increase patient outcomes. Therefore, the main aim of this study is to identify the essential radiomic features as an image marker and compare the diagnostic feasibility of feature parameters derived from radiomics analysis and conventional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to differentiate benign and malignant breast masses. Methods and material: T1-weighted Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced (DCE) breast MR axial images of 151 (benign (79) and malignant (72)) patients were chosen. Regions of interest were selected using both manual and semi-automatic segmentation from each lesion. 382 radiomic features computed on the selected regions. A random forest model was employed to detect the most important features that differentiate benign and malignant breast masses. The ten most important radiomics features were obtained from manual and semi-automatic segmentation based on the Gini index to train a support vector machine. MATLAB and TBM SPSS Statistics Subscription software used for statistical analysis. Results: The accuracy (sensitivity) of the models built from the ten most significant features obtained from manual and semi-automatic segmentation were 0.815 (0.84), 0.821 (0.87), respectively. The top 10 features obtained from manual delineation and semi-automatic segmentation showed a significant difference (P<0.05) between benign and malignant breast lesions. Conclusion: This radiomics analysis based on DCE-BMRE revealed distinct radiomic features to differentiate benign and malignant breast masses. Therefore, the radiomics analysis can be used as a supporting tool in detecting breast MRI lesions.