Abstract

Objective

The main aim of the present systematic review was a comprehensive overview of the Radiomics Quality Score (RQS)–based systematic reviews to highlight common issues and challenges of radiomics research application and evaluate the relationship between RQS and review features.

Methods

The literature search was performed on multiple medical literature archives according to PRISMA guidelines for systematic reviews that reported radiomic quality assessment through the RQS. Reported scores were converted to a 0–100% scale. The Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to compare RQS scores and review features.

Results

The literature research yielded 345 articles, from which 44 systematic reviews were finally included in the analysis. Overall, the median of RQS was 21.00% (IQR = 11.50). No significant differences of RQS were observed in subgroup analyses according to targets (oncological/not oncological target, neuroradiology/body imaging focus and one imaging technique/more than one imaging technique, characterization/prognosis/detection/other).

Conclusions

Our review did not reveal a significant difference of quality of radiomic articles reported in systematic reviews, divided in different subgroups. Furthermore, low overall methodological quality of radiomics research was found independent of specific application domains. While the RQS can serve as a reference tool to improve future study designs, future research should also be aimed at improving its reliability and developing new tools to meet an ever-evolving research space.

Key Points

• Radiomics is a promising high-throughput method that may generate novel imaging biomarkers to improve clinical decision-making process, but it is an inherently complex analysis and often lacks reproducibility and generalizability.

• The Radiomics Quality Score serves a necessary role as the de facto reference tool for assessing radiomics studies.

• External auditing of radiomics studies, in addition to the standard peer-review process, is valuable to highlight common limitations and provide insights to improve future study designs and practical applicability of the radiomics models.

Details

Title
Systematic review of the radiomics quality score applications: an EuSoMII Radiomics Auditing Group Initiative
Author
Spadarella, Gaia 1 ; Stanzione, Arnaldo 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Akinci D’Antonoli, Tugba 2 ; Andreychenko, Anna 3 ; Fanni, Salvatore Claudio 4 ; Ugga, Lorenzo 1 ; Kotter, Elmar 5 ; Cuocolo, Renato 6 

1  University of Naples “Federico II”, Department of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, Naples, Italy (GRID:grid.4691.a) (ISNI:0000 0001 0790 385X) 
2  Cantonal Hospital Baselland, Institute of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Liestal, Switzerland (GRID:grid.440128.b) (ISNI:0000 0004 0457 2129) 
3  Research and Practical Clinical Center for Diagnostics and Telemedicine Technologies of the Moscow Healthcare Department, Moscow, Russia (GRID:grid.440128.b) 
4  University of Pisa, Department of Translational Research, Academic Radiology, Pisa, Italy (GRID:grid.5395.a) (ISNI:0000 0004 1757 3729) 
5  University of Freiburg, Department of Radiology, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, Freiburg, Germany (GRID:grid.5963.9) 
6  University of Salerno, Department of Medicine, Surgery, and Dentistry, Baronissi, Italy (GRID:grid.11780.3f) (ISNI:0000 0004 1937 0335); University of Naples “Federico II”, Augmented Reality for Health Monitoring Laboratory (ARHeMLab), Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Naples, Italy (GRID:grid.4691.a) (ISNI:0000 0001 0790 385X) 
Pages
1884-1894
Publication year
2023
Publication date
Mar 2023
Publisher
Springer Nature B.V.
ISSN
09387994
e-ISSN
14321084
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-022-09187-3
ProQuest document ID
2777164045
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2022. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.