The potential and challenges of radiomics in uncovering prognostic and molecular differences in interstitial lung disease associated with systemic sclerosis

Abstract

We read with great interest the study by Schniering et al. [1], recently published in the European Respiratory Journal. This study highlighted the potential of radiomics as a non-invasive tool for disease characterisation, prognosis stratification and lung pathophysiology evaluation in systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease (SSc-ILD). The results demonstrated that quantitative radiomic risk score (qRISSc) could accurately predict survival in SSc-ILD cohorts and was reverse translatable from human to animal ILD and correlated with fibrotic pathway activation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first landmark study to validate the biological meaning of radiomic biomarkers through a cross-species approach, which may provide new insights into future radiomic works to break through the current bottleneck of traditional radiomics. The radiomic risk score is promising but challenging in the evaluation of prognostic and molecular differences in interstitial lung disease associated with systemic sclerosis. https://bit.ly/3oWg4UO