Diagnostics (Jan 2023)

Immunotherapy Assessment: A New Paradigm for Radiologists

  • Vincenza Granata,
  • Roberta Fusco,
  • Sergio Venanzio Setola,
  • Igino Simonetti,
  • Carmine Picone,
  • Ester Simeone,
  • Lucia Festino,
  • Vito Vanella,
  • Maria Grazia Vitale,
  • Agnese Montanino,
  • Alessandro Morabito,
  • Francesco Izzo,
  • Paolo Antonio Ascierto,
  • Antonella Petrillo

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics13020302
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13, no. 2
p. 302

Abstract

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Immunotherapy denotes an exemplar change in an oncological setting. Despite the effective application of these treatments across a broad range of tumors, only a minority of patients have beneficial effects. The efficacy of immunotherapy is affected by several factors, including human immunity, which is strongly correlated to genetic features, such as intra-tumor heterogeneity. Classic imaging assessment, based on computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which is useful for conventional treatments, has a limited role in immunotherapy. The reason is due to different patterns of response and/or progression during this kind of treatment which differs from those seen during other treatments, such as the possibility to assess the wide spectrum of immunotherapy-correlated toxic effects (ir-AEs) as soon as possible. In addition, considering the unusual response patterns, the limits of conventional response criteria and the necessity of using related immune-response criteria are clear. Radiomics analysis is a recent field of great interest in a radiological setting and recently it has grown the idea that we could identify patients who will be fit for this treatment or who will develop ir-AEs.

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