Application of DCE-MRI radiomics signature analysis in differentiating molecular subtypes of luminal and non-luminal breast cancer

BackgroundThe goal of this study was to develop and validate a radiomics signature based on dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) preoperatively differentiating luminal and non-luminal molecular subtypes in patients with invasive breast cancer.MethodsOne hundred and thirty-five invasive breast cancer patients with luminal (n = 78) and non-luminal (n = 57) molecular subtypes were divided into training set (n = 95) and testing set (n = 40) in a 7:3 ratio. Demographics and MRI radiological features were used to construct clinical risk factors. Radiomics signature was constructed by extracting radiomics features from the second phase of DCE-MRI images and radiomics score (rad-score) was calculated. Finally, the prediction performance was evaluated in terms of calibration, discrimination, and clinical usefulness.ResultsMultivariate logistic regression analysis showed that no clinical risk factors were independent predictors of luminal and non-luminal molecular subtypes in invasive breast cancer patients. Meanwhile, the radiomics signature showed good discrimination in the training set (AUC, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.78–0.93) and the testing set (AUC, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.65–0.95).ConclusionThe DCE-MRI radiomics signature is a promising tool to discrimination luminal and non-luminal molecular subtypes in invasive breast cancer patients preoperatively and noninvasively.