Ultrasound-based radiomics for early predicting response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with breast cancer: a systematic review with meta-analysis

Objective

This study aims to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound imaging (US)-based radiomics for the early prediction of response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in breast cancer patients.

Methods

We comprehensively searched PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, and Web of Science databases up to 1 January 2023 for eligible studies. We assessed the methodological quality of the enrolled studies with Radiomics Quality Score (RQS) and the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 tools. We performed meta-analyses to summarize the diagnostic efficacy of US-based radiomics in response to NAC in breast cancer patients.

Results

Eight studies proved eligible. Eligible studies exhibited an average RQS score of 12.88 (35.8% of the total score), with the RQS score ranging from 8 to 19. In the meta-analyses, the pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, and diagnostic odds ratio were 0.87 (95% CI 0.81–0.92), 0.78 (95% CI 0.72–0.83), 4.02 (95% CI 3.18–5.08), 0.16 (95% CI 0.10–0.25), and 25.17 (95% CI 15.10–41.95), respectively. Results from subgroup analyses indicated that prospective studies apparently exhibited more optimal sensitivity than retrospective studies. Sensitivity analyses exhibited similar results to the primary analyses.

Conclusion

US-based radiomics may be a potentially crucial adjuvant method for evaluating the response of breast cancer to NAC. Due to limited data available and low quality of eligible studies, more multicenter prospective studies with rigorous methods are required to confirm our findings.