Using FET PET radiomics for differentiating pseudoprogression from early tumour progression in glioma patients post‐chemoradiation

18th December 2020

Philipp Lohmann, Mai A. Elahmadawy, Robin Gutsche, Jan‐Michael Werner, Elena K. Bauer, Garry Ceccon, Martin Kocher, Christoph W. Lerche, Marion Rapp, Gereon R. Fink, Nadim J. Shah, Karl‐Josef Langen and Norbert Galldiks

Following chemoradiation in glioma patients, structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may suggest tumour progression that subsequently improves during the course of the disease without any treatment change. This phenomenon is called pseudoprogression. It is, however, unrelated to actual tumour progression, and if it is not correctly identified, it can result in the premature termination of an effective treatment, potentially negatively impacting survival.

Despite advances in medical imaging, a reliable diagnosis of pseudoprogression remains challenging. In response to this, this study investigated the potential of amino acid positron emission tomography (PET) radiomics - a method from the field of Artificial Intelligence - for the diagnosis of pseudoprogression.

In 34 patients with suspicious MRI early after chemoradiation completion, the study found that the proposed amino acid PET radiomics model correctly identified all patients with pseudoprogression.

Consequently, it is anticipated that this promising result will prompt further research and validation of the proposed model in a larger multicentric dataset.

Origional publication:
FET PET Radiomics for Differentiating Pseudoprogression from Early Tumor Progression in Glioma Patients Post-Chemoradiation