Abstract
Precision medicine is increasingly pushed forward, also with respect to upcoming new
targeted therapies. Individual characterization of diseases on the basis of biomarkers
is a prerequisite for this development. So far, biomarkers are characterized clinically,
histologically or on a molecular level. The implementation of broad screening methods
(“Omics”) and the analysis of big data – in addition to single markers – allow to
define biomarker signatures. Next to “Genomics”, “Proteomics”, and “Metabolicis”,
“Radiomics” gained increasing interest during the last years. Based on radiologic
imaging, multiple radiomic markers are extracted with the help of specific algorithms.
These are correlated with clinical, (immuno-) histopathological, or genomic data.
Underlying structural differences are based on the imaging metadata and are often
not visible and therefore not detectable without specific software. Radiomics are
depicted numerically or by graphs. The fact that radiomic information can be extracted
from routinely performed imaging adds a specific appeal to this method. Radiomics
could potentially replace biopsies and additional investigations. Alternatively, radiomics
could complement other biomarkers and thus lead to a more precise, multimodal prediction.
Until now, radiomics are primarily used to investigate solid tumors. Some promising
studies in head and neck cancer have already been published.
Key words
Radiomics - biomarkers - head and neck cancer