Research progress and clinical application of radiomics in hepatocellular carcinoma

Medical image has been widely used in clinical application to aid decision making. It holds information related to tumor heterogeneity that cannot be easily recognized. In radiomics analysis, medical images are converted into mineable high-dimensional quantitative features by computer technology. Combining with related clinical problems, radiomics can provide help for prognosis and clinical decision making. The emergence of radiomics represents the transformation in the evaluation of medical imaging from a descriptive and qualitative discipline to a predictive and quantitative discipline. Hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the most common malignant tumors in China with high morbidity and mortality. Radiomics has been used in diagnosis, treatment selection and efficacy evaluation of hepatocellular carcinoma. Based on the basic principles and techniques of radiomics, this paper reviews the reaches in diagnosis, treatment selection and efficacy evaluation of hepatocellular carcinoma.