Radiomics/Radiogenomics in Lung Cancer: Basic Principles and Initial Clinical Results

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Radiogenomics is a promising new approach in cancer assessment, providing an evaluation of the molecular basis of imaging phenotypes after establishing associations between radiological features and molecular features at the genomic–transcriptomic–proteomic level. This review focuses on describing key aspects of radiogenomics while discussing limitations of translatability to the clinic and possible solutions to these challenges, providing the clinician with an up-to-date handbook on how to use this new tool. ABSTRACT: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, and elucidation of its complicated pathobiology has been traditionally targeted by studies incorporating genomic as well other high-throughput approaches. Recently, a collection of methods used for cancer imaging, supplemented by quantitative aspects leading towards imaging biomarker assessment termed “radiomics”, has introduced a novel dimension in cancer research. Integration of genomics and radiomics approaches, where identifying the biological basis of imaging phenotypes is feasible due to the establishment of associations between molecular features at the genomic–transcriptomic–proteomic level and radiological features, has recently emerged termed radiogenomics. This review article aims to briefly describe the main aspects of radiogenomics, while discussing its basic limitations related to lung cancer clinical applications for clinicians, researchers and patients.