The independent contribution of routine radiology scans in predicting recurrence in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is relatively unexplored. In a new study of 394 NSCLC patients, led by Jia Wu, Ph.D., Tina Cascone M.D., Ph.D., and Jianjun Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., researchers developed a proof-of-concept imaging framework to stratify patients into three clinically meaningful subtypes with distinct prognoses.
These subtypes add to the prognostic information obtained from clinicopathological risk factors and ctDNA alone, and they could potentially serve as an earlier indicator of recurrence. This framework analyzes and identifies distinct intratumoral sub-regions, or habitats, which the researchers validated as prognostic biomarker signatures for patients with NSCLC. If further validated, this imaging signature could be used to refine individualized therapies in patients with lung cancer.