Repeatability of Radiomics Studies in Colorectal Cancer: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Purpose: Recently, radiomics has been widely used in colorectal cancer, but many variable factors affect the repeatability of radiomics research. This review aims to analyze the repeatability of radiomics studies in colorectal cancer and to evaluate the current status of radiomics in the field of colorectal cancer.Methods: A total of 68 eligible studies was included in this review by searching from the PubMed and EmBase databases. Then each study in our review was evaluated using the Radiomics Quality Score (RQS). We analyzed the factors that may affect the repeatability in the radiomics workflow and discussed the repeatability of the included researches.Results: A total of 68 articles was included in this review, of which only 2 (3%) articles controlled the influence of individual factors, just 2 (3%) articles considered the variability between scanners. In addition, the median score of RQS was 12(out of 36), range −7 to + 28. Conclusions: The RQS score was moderately low, and most studies did not consider the repeatability of radiomics features, especially in terms of Intra-individual, scanners, and scanning parameters. In order to improve the generalization of the radiomics model, it is necessary to further control the variable factors of repeatability.