Novel Texture-Based Radiomic Signatures for Non-Invasive Prediction of EGFR Mutation Status in Lung Nodules

Background. Accurate identification and analysis of lung nodules via computed tomography are pivotal for lung cancer diagnosis and the detection of genetic alterations, such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations. While conventional radiomics has become a cornerstone of medical imaging, its predictive power for determining EGFR mutation status remains limited, necessitating innovative approaches to improve diagnostic reliability. Objective: to enhance the accuracy of EGFR mutation status prediction in lung nodules by introducing and integrating novel texture-based radiomics features into conventional radiomics analysis. Material and methods . Three novel radiomic features were developed: Adaptive Texture Contrast (ATC), Directional Texture Uniformity (DTU), and Co-occurrence of Texture Transitions (CTT). They were designed to capture complex texture patterns associated with EGFR mutations. Integrating these features, a classification model was employed to differentiate EGFR mutant from wild-type lung nodules. Results . The incorporation of ATC, DTU, and CTT into the radiomics feature set improved the classification accuracy by 4%. The Minimum Redundancy Maximum Relevance (MRMR) feature selection method further validated the significance of these features, ranking them as the top contributors to the model’s predictive performance. Conclusion. The findings underscore the potential of advanced texture analysis in improving the diagnostic capabilities of radiomics for lung nodule classification. By enabling more accurate predictions of EGFR mutations, the study supports the advancement of personalized medicine and targeted treatment strategies in lung cancer, highlighting the importance of continuous innovation in feature engineering.