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Radiomic analysis of imaging heterogeneity in tumours and the surrounding parenchyma based on unsupervised decomposition of DCE-MRI for predicting molecular subtypes of breast cancer

  • Breast
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Abstract

Objectives

This study aimed to predict the molecular subtypes of breast cancer via intratumoural and peritumoural radiomic analysis with subregion identification based on the decomposition of contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI).

Methods

The study included 211 women with histopathologically confirmed breast cancer. We utilised a completely unsupervised convex analysis of mixtures (CAM) method by unmixing dynamic imaging series from heterogeneous tissues. Each tumour and the surrounding parenchyma were thus decomposed into multiple subregions, representing different vascular characterisations, from which radiomic features were extracted. A random forest model was trained and tested using a leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV) method to predict breast cancer subtypes. The predictive models from tumoural and peritumoural subregions were fused for classification.

Results

Tumour and peritumour DCE-MR images were decomposed into three compartments, representing plasma input, fast-flow kinetics, and slow-flow kinetics. The tumour subregion related to fast-flow kinetics showed the best performance among the subregions for differentiating between patients with four molecular subtypes (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) = 0.832), exhibiting an AUC value significantly (p < 0.0001) higher than that obtained with the entire tumour (AUC = 0.719). When the tumour- and parenchyma-based predictive models were fused, the performance, measured as the AUC, increased to 0.897; this value was significantly higher than that obtained with other tumour partition methods.

Conclusions

Radiomic analysis of intratumoural and peritumoural heterogeneity based on the decomposition of image time-series signals has the potential to more accurately identify tumour kinetic features and serve as a valuable clinical marker to enhance the prediction of breast cancer subtypes.

Key Points

• Decomposition of image time-series signals has the potential to more accurately identify tumour kinetic features.

• Fusion of intratumoural- and peritumoural-based predictive models improves the prediction of breast cancer subtypes.

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Abbreviations

CAM:

Convex analysis of mixtures

GLCM:

Grey level co-occurrence matrix

KPC:

Kinetic pattern clustering

NAC:

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy

PER:

Peak enhancement rate

PVE:

Partial-volume effect

TTP:

Time-to-peak

WIS:

Wash-in-slope

WOS:

Wash-out-slope

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Funding

This work has received funding by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (61731008, 61871428, and 61401131), the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province of China (LJ19H180001, LZ15F010001), and the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) under Award No. URF/1/3450-01.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Ming Fan and Peng Zhang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Instrumentation, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, China

    Ming Fan, Peng Zhang & Lihua Li

  2. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Arlington, VA, 22203, USA

    Yue Wang

  3. Department of Radiology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, China

    Weijun Peng

  4. Department of Radiology, First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Zhejiang, Hangzhou, China

    Shiwei Wang & Maosheng Xu

  5. Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering Division (CEMSE), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia

    Xin Gao

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  1. Ming Fan
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Maosheng Xu or Lihua Li.

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The scientific guarantor of this publication is Professor Lihua Li.

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The authors of this manuscript declare no relationships with any companies, whose products or services may be related to the subject matter of the article.

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Fan, M., Zhang, P., Wang, Y. et al. Radiomic analysis of imaging heterogeneity in tumours and the surrounding parenchyma based on unsupervised decomposition of DCE-MRI for predicting molecular subtypes of breast cancer. Eur Radiol 29, 4456–4467 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-018-5891-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-018-5891-3

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