On the occasion of the Research Days of AIRC, the Italian Association for Cancer Research, Professor Arturo Chiti, Head of PET and Nuclear Medicine at Humanitas, spoke at Uno Morning on RaiUno and explained how thanks to the advancement of technology it is now possible to detect tumors earlier, and tumors that were previously invisible to our eyes.

One of these techniques is weaving analysis: “Weaving analysis is a particular technique that allows, using methods of extracting information based on statistical methods, to obtain from the diagnostic images that we use daily for the study of neoplasms, additional information that can then be put in correlation with the biological characteristics of the tumors and with the peculiarities of each patient.

Currently we make qualitative evaluations of the images with less quantification, extracting information not visible to the naked eye with these new techniques,” explains Prof. Chiti.

 

Radiomics and radiogenomics

“In analogy with other disciplines we know as genomics and transcriptomics, in recent years we have begun to study radiomics, with the aim of correlating the results of these advanced analysis of images with the endpoints that are used in oncology (such as disease-free interval and overall survival), and therefore to be able to derive additional information that can be related to the effectiveness of the therapies to which the patient is subjected.

Radiogenomics instead, in addition to this evaluation with the advanced analysis of the images of weaving, inserts the correlation of the data obtained from images with the genetic characteristics of tumors,” the specialist stressed.

 

The study of Professor Chiti

“Thanks to the contribution of AIRC we are carrying out a study that aims to evaluate the characteristics extracted from FDG PET and CT images in patients with lung cancer, and correlate them with the genetic and classifying characteristics of the patients themselves. This allows us to make a sort of image biopsy, identifying characteristics that can then guide the most suitable therapy for the individual patient,” concluded the professor.

 

Watch the interview with Prof. Chiti, from minute 00.51.24