Radiogenomic profiling of global DNA methylation associated with molecular phenotypes and immune features in glioma

The radiogenomic analysis has provided valuable imaging biomarkers with biological insights for gliomas. The radiogenomic markers for molecular profile such as DNA methylation remain to be uncovered to assist the molecular diagnosis and tumor treatment.

We apply the machine learning approaches to identify the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features that are associated with molecular profiles in 146 patients with gliomas, and the fitting models for each molecular feature (MoRad) are developed and validated. To provide radiological annotations for the molecular profiles, we devise two novel approaches called radiomic oncology (RO) and radiomic set enrichment analysis (RSEA).

The generated MoRad models perform well for profiling each molecular feature with radiomic features, including mutational, methylation, transcriptional, and protein profiles. Among them, the MoRad models have a remarkable performance in quantitatively mapping global DNA methylation. With RO and RSEA approaches, we find that global DNA methylation could be reflected by the heterogeneity in volumetric and textural features of enhanced regions in T2-weighted MRI. Finally, we demonstrate the associations of global DNA methylation with clinicopathological, molecular, and immunological features, including histological grade, mutations of IDH and ATRX, MGMT methylation, multiple methylation-high subtypes, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, and long-term survival outcomes.

Global DNA methylation is highly associated with radiological profiles in glioma. Radiogenomic global methylation is an imaging-based quantitative molecular biomarker that is associated with specific consensus molecular subtypes and immune features.