The Role of Chest CT Radiomics in Diagnosis of Lung Cancer or Tuberculosis: A Pilot Study
Lekshmi Thattaamuriyil Padmakumari,
Gisella Guido,
Damiano Caruso,
Ilaria Nacci,
Antonella Del Gaudio,
Marta Zerunian,
Michela Polici,
Renuka Gopalakrishnan,
Aziz Kallikunnel Sayed Mohamed,
Domenico De Santis,
Andrea Laghi,
Dania Cioni,
Emanuele Neri
Affiliations
Lekshmi Thattaamuriyil Padmakumari
Department of Radiology, Apollo Adlux Hospital, Kochi 683576, Kerala, India
Gisella Guido
Department of Medical Surgical Sciences and Translational Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Radiology Unit—Sant’Andrea University Hospital, Via di Grottarossa, 1035, 00189 Rome, Italy
Damiano Caruso
Department of Medical Surgical Sciences and Translational Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Radiology Unit—Sant’Andrea University Hospital, Via di Grottarossa, 1035, 00189 Rome, Italy
Ilaria Nacci
Department of Medical Surgical Sciences and Translational Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Radiology Unit—Sant’Andrea University Hospital, Via di Grottarossa, 1035, 00189 Rome, Italy
Antonella Del Gaudio
Department of Medical Surgical Sciences and Translational Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Radiology Unit—Sant’Andrea University Hospital, Via di Grottarossa, 1035, 00189 Rome, Italy
Marta Zerunian
Department of Medical Surgical Sciences and Translational Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Radiology Unit—Sant’Andrea University Hospital, Via di Grottarossa, 1035, 00189 Rome, Italy
Michela Polici
Department of Medical Surgical Sciences and Translational Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Radiology Unit—Sant’Andrea University Hospital, Via di Grottarossa, 1035, 00189 Rome, Italy
Renuka Gopalakrishnan
Department of Radiodiagnosis, Regional Cancer Centre, Thiruvananthapuram 695011, Kerala, India
Aziz Kallikunnel Sayed Mohamed
Department of Pulmonology, Apollo Adlux Hospital, Kochi 683576, Kerala, India
Domenico De Santis
Department of Medical Surgical Sciences and Translational Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Radiology Unit—Sant’Andrea University Hospital, Via di Grottarossa, 1035, 00189 Rome, Italy
Andrea Laghi
Department of Medical Surgical Sciences and Translational Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Radiology Unit—Sant’Andrea University Hospital, Via di Grottarossa, 1035, 00189 Rome, Italy
Dania Cioni
Italian Society of Medical and Interventional Radiology, SIRM Foundation, Via della Signora 2, 20122 Milano, Italy
Emanuele Neri
Italian Society of Medical and Interventional Radiology, SIRM Foundation, Via della Signora 2, 20122 Milano, Italy
In many low-income countries, the poor availability of lung biopsy leads to delayed diagnosis of lung cancer (LC), which can appear radiologically similar to tuberculosis (TB). To assess the ability of CT Radiomics in differentiating between TB and LC, and to evaluate the potential predictive role of clinical parameters, from March 2020 to September 2021, patients with histological diagnosis of TB or LC underwent chest CT evaluation and were retrospectively enrolled. Exclusion criteria were: availability of only enhanced CT scans, previous lung surgery and significant CT motion artefacts. After manual 3D segmentation of enhanced CT, two radiologists, in consensus, extracted and compared radiomics features (T-test or Mann–Whitney), and they tested their performance, in differentiating LC from TB, via Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Forty patients (28 LC and 12 TB) were finally enrolled, and 31 were male, with a mean age of 59 ± 13 years. Significant differences were found in normal WBC count (p p p p p < 0.0001, respectively). Radiomics may be a non-invasive imaging tool in many poor nations, for differentiating LC from TB, with a pivotal role in improving oncological patients’ management; however, future prospective studies will be necessary to validate these initial findings.
