CT radiomics analysis of primary colon cancer patients with or without liver metastases: a correlative study with [ 18 F]FDG PET uptake values

Purpose Utilizing [ 18 F]Fluoro-2-deoxy- d -glucose Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography ([ 18 F]FDG PET/CT) scans on primary colon cancer (CC) patients including with liver metastases (LM), we aimed to determine the relationship between structural CT radiomic features and metabolic PET standard uptake value (SUV) in these patients. Material and method A retrospective analysis was performed on 60 patients with primary CC, of which 40 had liver metastases that were more than 2 cm in diameter. [ 18 F]FDG PET/CT was used to calculate SUVmax, and 42 CT radiomic characteristics were extracted from non-enhanced CT images. Tumors were manually segmented on fused PET/CT scans by two experienced nuclear medicine physicians. Sixty primary CC and forty LM lesions were segmented accordingly. In the cases of multiple LM lesions, the lesion with the largest diameter was chosen for segmentation. In a univariate analysis approach, we used Spearman correlation with multiple testing correction (Benjamini–Hutchberg false discovery rate (FDR), α = 0.05) to ascertain the relationship between SUVmax and CT radiomic features. Result Twenty-two (52.3%) and twenty-six (61.9%) CT radiomic features were found to be significantly correlated with SUVmax values of primary CC ( n = 60) and LM ( n = 40) lesions, respectively (FDR-corrected p value < 0.05 and 0.6 < | ρ | < 1). GLCM_homogeneity ( ρ = 0.839), GLCM_dissimilarity ( ρ = − 0.832), GLZLM_ZLNU ( ρ = 0.827), and GLCM_contrast ( ρ = − 0.815) were the 4 features most correlated with SUVmax in CC. On the other hand, in LM, the 4 features most correlated with SUVmax were GLRLM_LRHGE ( ρ = 0.859), GLRLM_LRE ( ρ = 0.859), GLRLM_LRLGE ( ρ = 0.857), and GLRLM_RP ( ρ = − 0.820). Conclusion We investigated the relationship between SUVmax of preoperative primary CC lesions and their LM with CT radiomic features. We found some CT radiomic features having relationships with the metabolic characteristics of lesions. This work suggests that non-invasive predictive imaging biomarkers for precision medicine can be derived from CT radiomic. Graphical abstract