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Background Purpose Methods Results Conclusions Stereotactic body radiation therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma necessitates the implantation of gold fiducial markers in the liver, resulting in artifacts on computed tomography (CT) scans, which affect radiomic feature values.This report aims to assess the effect of these artifacts on radiomic features and how removing CT slices affects radiomic features extracted from 3D regions of interest (ROI).First, the range variation in 38 tumor contours unaffected by artifacts was assessed after sequentially and randomly removing 25%, 50%, 75% of slices. Subsequently, the agreement of feature values before and after removing ROI slices containing artifacts from 186 patients’ CT scans was assessed with Lin's concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) and a Wilcoxon signed‐rank test.In artifact‐free tumor volumes, at least 71% of features remain robust with up to 50% of slices removed, while 56% remains robust with up to 75% of slices removed. When comparing contours before and after removing slices containing artifacts, around a third of features in the tumor contour and surrounding area remain robust (CCC > 0.9), compared to 44% in the healthy liver. Concerning the tumor, 13% (Gray Level Size Zone Matrix) to 61% (first order) of the features remain robust (CCC > 0.9). Over 90% of features differ significantly as assessed by Wilcoxon signed‐rank test, however.This study demonstrates that removing slices containing artifacts is a feasible solution for the CT fiducial problem in this patient population and provides insight into which features are affected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abstract of the article "Use of Recombinant Non-Pathogenic Bacteria as Vectors for Hypoxia Targeted Gene Expression for Cancer Gene Therapy," by Asferd Mengesha, Ludwig Dobois, Brad G. Wouters, Phillipe Lambin and Jan Theys is presented.