From Testis to Retroperitoneum: The Role of Radiomics and Artificial Intelligence for Primary Tumors and Nodal...

Background and Objectives: Radiomics and artificial intelligence (AI) offer emerging quantitative tools for enhancing the diagnostic evaluation of testicular cancer. Conventional imaging-ultrasound (US), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and computed tomography (CT)-remains central to management but has limited ability to characterize tumor subtypes, detect occult nodal disease, or differentiate necrosis, teratoma, and viable tumor in post-chemotherapy residual masses. This systematic review summarizes current advances in radiomics and AI for both primary tumors and retroperitoneal disease. Materials and Methods: A systematic search of PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science identified studies applying radiomics or AI to testicular tumors, retroperitoneal lymph nodes and post-chemotherapy residual masses. Eligible studies included quantitative imaging analyses performed on ultrasound, MRI, and CT, with optional integration of clinical or molecular biomarkers. Eighteen studies met inclusion criteria and were evaluated with respect to methodological design, diagnostic performance, and translational readiness. Results: Across modalities, radiomics demonstrated encouraging discriminatory capacity, with accuracies of 74-82% for ultrasound, 80.7-97.9% for MRI, and 71.7-85.3% for CT. CT-based radiomics for post-chemotherapy residual masses showed moderate ability to distinguish necrosis/fibrosis, teratoma, and viable germ-cell tumor, though heterogeneous methodologies and limited external validation constrained generalizability. The strongest performance was observed in multimodal approaches: integrating radiomics with clinical variables or circulating microRNAs improved accuracy by up to 12% and 15%, respectively, mirroring gains reported in other oncologic radiomics applications. Persisting variability in segmentation practices, acquisition protocols, feature extraction, and machine-learning methods highlights ongoing barriers to reproducibility. Conclusions: Radiomics and AI-enhanced frameworks represent promising adjuncts for improving the noninvasive evaluation of testicular cancer, particularly when combined with clinical or molecular biomarkers. Future progress will depend on standardized imaging protocols, harmonized radiomics pipelines, and multicenter prospective validation. With continued methodological refinement and clinical integration, radiomics may support more precise risk stratification and reduce unnecessary interventions in testicular cancer.