Radiomics in peritumoral non-enhancing regions: fractional anisotropy and cerebral blood volume improve prediction of local progression and overall survival in patients with glioblastoma

Purpose The peritumoral non-enhancing region (NER) is frequently not removed during the surgical resection of glioblastoma, with most recurrences occurring within the original treatment field. This study determined whether radiomics analysis of the NER can predict local recurrence and overall survival in patients with glioblastoma. Methods Preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans from 83 consecutive patients with glioblastoma were retrospectively reviewed and grouped into training ( n = 59) and test sets ( n = 24). A total of 6472 radiomic features were extracted from contrast-enhanced T1-weighted and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery images and from fractional anisotropy (FA) and normalized cerebral blood volume (CBV) maps. A diagnostic model to predict 6-month progression was tested using the area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC) and compared with the single parameters of FA and CBV. A survival model was tested using Harrell’s C-index and compared with clinical models that included age, sex, Karnofsky performance score, and extent of surgical resection. Results Four FA features and six CBV features were selected for the diagnostic model; no features were extracted from conventional MRI. Combined FA and CBV radiomics showed better predictive value for local progression (AUC, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.67–0.90) than single imaging radiomics (AUC, 0.70–0.76) or single imaging parameters (AUC, 0.51–0.54). The combined model (C-index, 0.87) improved prognostication when added to clinical models (C-index, 0.72). Conclusion Radiomics features using FA and CBV in the NER have the potential to improve prediction of local progression and overall survival in patients with glioblastoma.