Radiomics in cervical cancer: Current applications and future potential

Cervical cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women. Early diagnosis and prediction will greatly improve the treatment outcome. Many clinical parameters have been used as diagnostic and prognostic factors for cervical cancer patients, including tumor stage, histological type, lymph node status, but with limitations in prediction accuracy. The development of noninvasive biomarker with the potential to provide more specific tumor characterization before treatment begins or during therapy is urgent needed, which may permit clinicians to administer a more individualized anti-cancer treatment. Radiomics is a mathematical-statistical procedure extracting information from medial images, which has the potential for prediction of staging, histological type, node status, relapse and survival in patients with cervical cancer. In this manuscript, we reviewed recent clinical studies and future potential for the application of radiomics in the treatment of patients with cervical cancer, and discussed the current challenges and limitations of radiomics for oncology.