Translating radiomics into clinical practice: A step-by-step guide to study design and evaluation.

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging Analysis
• Computational Pathology

Background:

• Radiomics offers significant potential for advancing precision medicine through high-throughput quantitative feature extraction from medical images.
• Despite research interest, clinical translation of radiomics is limited due to workflow complexity, posing challenges for clinicians without computational backgrounds.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide a practical, step-by-step guide for planning and appraising radiomics studies.
• To address the technical complexities hindering radiomics adoption in clinical practice.

Main Methods:

• Focus on critical aspects: data preprocessing, feature reproducibility, bias minimization, and model validation.
• Emphasis on accessible, pragmatic advice for researchers new to radiomics.

Main Results:

• The guide aims to demystify radiomics study design and evaluation.
• It highlights frequently overlooked areas in early-stage radiomics research.

Conclusions:

• This guide seeks to broaden access to radiomics by equipping clinicians with practical knowledge.
• Facilitating high-quality study design and accelerating radiomics integration into patient care.