The value of synthetic MRI for early prediction of NAC response in breast cancer: a complement to apparent diffusion coefficient in radiomics

Motivation: Contrast-free sequences is receiving increasing attention. As a novel technology, radiomics analysis of Sythetic MRI(SyMRI) in breat treatment has not been widely explored. Goal(s): To analyse the radiomics features extracted from SyMRI and its complementary value to conventional ADC sequence. Approach: Recursive feature elimination (RFE) was used to select features and support vector machine (SVM) was used to build models. The model performance was assessed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis and compared by DeLong test. Results: Delta-radiomics models based on SyMRI sequences outperformed the single time-point models. The SyMRI sequence that complements the conventional ADC is delta-T2 mapping. Impact: Radiomics modle generated from delta-T2 mapping showed stable performance and complementary value to ADC sequence. Once scan-multiparameter and contrast-free SyMRI can obtain the comparative or even elevated value as ADC in early prediction of NAC response in breast cancer.