Radiomics Signatures of Computed Tomography Imaging for Predicting Resection Margin Status in Pancreatic Head Adenocarcinoma

Abstract Background: To identify preoperative computed tomography radiomics texture features which correlate with resection margin status and prognosis in resected pancreatic head adenocarcinoma. Methods: Improved prognostication methods utilizing novel non-invasive radiomic techniques may accurately predict resection margin status preoperatively. In an ongoing concerning pancreatic head adenocarcinoma, the venous enhanced CT images of 86 patients who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy were selected, and the resection margin (>1 mm or ≤1 mm) was identified by pathological examination. Three regions of interests (ROIs) were then taken from superior to inferior facing the superior mesenteric vein and artery. Subsequent Laplacian-Dirichlet based texture analysis methods extracting algorithm flows of texture features within ROIs were analyzed and assessed in relation to patient prognosis.Results: Patients with >1 mm resection margin had an overall improved survival compared to ≤1 mm (P < 0.05). Distance 1 and 2 of Gray level co-occurrence matrix, high Gray-level run emphasis of run-length matrix and average filter of wavelet transform (all P < 0.05) were correlated with resection margin status (Area under the curve was 0.784, sensitivity was 75% and specificity was 79%). The energy of wavelet transform, the measure of smoothness of histogram and the variance in 2 direction of Gabor transform are independent predictors of overall survival prognosis, independent of resection margin.Conclusions: Resection margin status (>1 mm vs ≤1 mm) is a key prognostic factor in pancreatic adenocarcinoma and CT radiomic analysis have the potential to predict resection margin status preoperatively, and the radiomic labels may improve selection neoadjucant therapy. Trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02928081.