Prospective clinical research of radiomics and deep learning in oncology: A translational review

Radiomics and deep learning (DL) hold transformative promise and substantial and significant advances in oncology; however, most methods have been tested in retrospective or simulated settings. There is considerable interest in the biomarker validation, clinical utility, and methodological robustness of these studies and their deployment in real-world settings. This review summarizes the characteristics of studies, the level of prospective validation, and the overview of research on different clinical endpoints. The discussion of methodological robustness shows the potential for independent external replication of prospectively reported results. These in-depth analyses further describe the barriers limiting the translation of radiomics and DL into primary care options and provide specific recommendations regarding clinical deployment. Finally, we propose solutions for integrating novel approaches into the treatment environment to unravel the critical process of translating AI models into the clinical routine and explore strategies to improve personalized medicine.