Radiomics in PET: principles and applications

Radiomics is an evolving field in which the extraction of large amounts of features from diagnostic medical images may be used to predict underlying molecular and genetic characteristics, thereby improving treatment response prediction and prognostication and potentially allowing personalisation of cancer treatment. There is increasing interest in extracting additional data from PET images, particularly novel features that describe the heterogeneity of voxel intensities, but a number of potential limitations need to be recognised and overcome. Nevertheless, some early data suggest that extraction of additional quantitative data may offer further predictive and prognostic information in individual patients.