Elaboration of a multisequence MRI-based radiomics signature for the preoperative prediction of the muscle-invasive status of bladder cancer: a double-center study

Objectives To develop a multisequence MRI-based radiomics signature for the preoperative prediction of the muscle-invasive status of bladder cancer (BCa). Methods This retrospective study involved 106 eligible patients from two independent clinical centers. All patients underwent a preoperative 3.0 T MRI scan with T2-weighted image (T2WI) and multi- b -value diffusion-weighted image (DWI) sequences. In total, 1404 radiomics features were extracted from the largest region of the reported tumor locations on the T2WI, DWI, and corresponding apparent diffusion coefficient map (ADC) of each patient. A radiomics signature, namely the Radscore , was then generated using the recursive feature elimination approach and a logistic regression algorithm in a training cohort ( n = 64). Its performance was then validated in an independent validation cohort ( n = 42). The primary imaging and clinical factors in conjunction with the Radscore were used to determine whether the performance could be further improved. Results The Radscore, generated by 36 selected radiomics features, demonstrated a favorable ability to predict muscle-invasive BCa status in both the training (AUC 0.880) and validation (AUC 0.813) cohorts. Subsequently, integrating the two independent predictors (including the Radscore and MRI-determined tumor stalk) into a nomogram exhibited more favorable discriminatory performance, with the AUC improved to 0.924 and 0.877 in both cohorts, respectively. Conclusions The proposed multisequence MRI-based radiomics signature alone could be an effective tool for quantitative prediction of muscle-invasive status of BCa. Integrating the Radscore with MRI-determined tumor stalk could further improve the discriminatory power, realizing more accurate prediction of nonmuscle-invasive and muscle-invasive BCa. Key Points • D WI is superior to T2WI sequence in reflecting the heterogeneous differences between NMIBC and MIBC, and multisequence MRI helps in the preoperative prediction of muscle-invasive status of BCa. • Co-occurrence (CM), run-length matrix (RLM), and gray-level size zone matrix (GLSZM) features were the favorable feature categories for the prediction of muscle-invasive status of BCa. • The Radscore (proposed multisequence MRI-based radiomics signature) helps predict preoperatively muscle invasion. Combination with the MRI-determined tumor stalk further improves prediction.