Machine learning classification of texture features of MRI breast tumor and peri-tumor of combined pre- and early treatment predicts pathologic complete response

Abstract

Purpose

This study used machine learning classification of texture features from MRI of breast tumor and peri-tumor at multiple treatment time points in conjunction with molecular subtypes to predict eventual pathological complete response (PCR) to neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Materials and method

This study employed a subset of patients (N = 166) with PCR data from the I-SPY-1 TRIAL (2002–2006). This cohort consisted of patients with stage 2 or 3 breast cancer that underwent anthracycline–cyclophosphamide and taxane treatment. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was acquired pre-neoadjuvant chemotherapy, early, and mid-treatment. Texture features were extracted from post-contrast-enhanced MRI, pre- and post-contrast subtraction images, and with morphological dilation to include peri-tumoral tissue. Molecular subtypes and Ki67 were also included in the prediction model. Performance of classification models used the receiver operating characteristics curve analysis including area under the curve (AUC). Statistical analysis was done using unpaired two-tailed t-tests.

Results

Molecular subtypes alone yielded moderate prediction performance of PCR (AUC = 0.82, p = 0.07). Pre-, early, and mid-treatment data alone yielded moderate performance (AUC = 0.88, 0.72, and 0.78, p = 0.03, 0.13, 0.44, respectively). The combined pre- and early treatment data markedly improved performance (AUC = 0.96, p = 0.0003). Addition of molecular subtypes improved performance slightly for individual time points but substantially for the combined pre- and early treatment (AUC = 0.98, p = 0.0003). The optimal morphological dilation was 3–5 pixels. Subtraction of post- and pre-contrast MRI further improved performance (AUC = 0.98, p = 0.00003). Finally, among the machine-learning algorithms evaluated, the RUSBoosted Tree machine-learning method yielded the highest performance.

Conclusion

AI-classification of texture features from MRI of breast tumor at multiple treatment time points accurately predicts eventual PCR. Longitudinal changes in texture features and peri-tumoral features further improve PCR prediction performance. Accurate assessment of treatment efficacy early on could minimize unnecessary toxic chemotherapy and enable mid-treatment modification for patients to achieve better clinical outcomes.