Radiomics in Head and Neck Cancer: Extracting Valuable Information from Data beyond Recognition

In oncology, biomarkers that describe the characteristics of a malignancy on different levels (clinical, histological, molecular) and the patient's outcome and treatment response are increasingly integrated into the clinical routine. Extensive screening tools, "omics," offer incredible opportunities and vast amounts of data. During the last years, the field of "omics" gained a new promising partner, the "radiomics." Based on radiological imaging, multiple features can be extracted and linked to clinical, genomic, and histopathological data from other sources. Extracted traits describe radiological intensity, shape and texture characteristics and can be analyzed on routinely performed images. These specific radiomic markers and patterns are currently developed for multiple tumor entities, and first studies for squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck have been initiated.