Role of Imaging in Initial Prognostication of Locally Advanced Soft Tissue Sarcomas
Amandine Crombé1, George R Matcuk2, David Fadli3
1Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Oncological Imaging, Institut Bergonié, Regional Comprehensive Cancer of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, 229, cours de l'Argonne, F-33076, Bordeaux, France; Department of musculoskeletal imaging, Pellegrin University Hospital, 2, place Amélie Raba-Léon, F-33000, Bordeaux, France; Models in Oncology (MONC) Team, INRIA Bordeaux Sud-Ouest, CNRS UMR 5251, Institut de Mathématiques de Bordeaux & Bordeaux University, 351 cours de la libération, F-33400 Talence, France.
Background:
Although imaging is central in the initial staging of patients with soft tissue sarcomas (STS), it remains underused and few radiological features are currently used in practice for prognostication and to help guide the best therapeutic strategy. Yet, several prognostic qualitative and quantitative characteristics from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) have been identified over these last decades.
Objective:
After an overview of the current validated prognostic features based on baseline imaging and their integration into prognostic tools, such as nomograms used by clinicians, the aim of this review is to summarize more complex and innovative MRI, PET, and radiomics features, and to highlight their role to predict indirectly (through histologic grade) or directly the patients' outcomes.


