Radiomics and Artificial Intelligence Can Predict Malignancy of Solitary Pulmonary Nodules in the Elderly

Abstract

Solitary pulmonary nodules (SPNs) are a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge for thoracic surgeons. Although such lesions are usually benign, the risk of malignancy remains significant, particularly in elderly patients, who represent a large segment of the affected population. Surgical treatment in this subset, which usually presents several comorbidities, requires careful evaluation, especially when pre-operative biopsy is not feasible and comorbidities may jeopardize the outcome. Radiomics and artificial intelligence (AI) are progressively being applied in predicting malignancy in suspicious nodules and assisting the decision-making process. In this study, we analyzed features of the radiomic images of 71 patients with SPN aged more than 75 years (median 79, IQR 76–81) who had undergone upfront pulmonary resection based on CT and PET-CT findings. Three different machine learning algorithms were applied—functional tree, Rep Tree and J48. Histology was malignant in 64.8% of nodules and the best predictive value was achieved by the J48 model (AUC 0.9). The use of AI analysis of radiomic features may be applied to the decision-making process in elderly frail patients with suspicious SPNs to minimize the false positive rate and reduce the incidence of unnecessary surgery.