Development of clinical and magnetic resonance imaging-based radiomics nomograms for the differentiation of nodular fasciitis from soft tissue sarcoma

Background Accurate differentiation of nodular fasciitis (NF) from soft tissue sarcoma (STS) before surgery is essential for the subsequent diagnosis and treatment of patients. Purpose To develop and evaluate radiomics nomograms based on clinical factors and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the preoperative differentiation of NF from STS. Material and Methods This retrospective study analyzed the MRI data of 27 patients with pathologically diagnosed NF and 58 patients with STS who were randomly divided into training (n = 62) and validation (n = 23) groups. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify the clinical factors and semantic features of MRI. Radiomics analysis was applied to fat-suppressed T1-weighted (T1W-FS) images, fat-suppressed T2-weighted (T2W-FS) images, and contrast-enhanced T1-weighted (CE-T1W) images. The radiomics nomograms incorporating the radiomics signatures, clinical factors, and semantic features of MRI were developed. ROC curves and AUCs were carried out to compare the performance of the clinical factors, radiomics signatures, and clinical radiomics nomograms. Results Tumor location, size, heterogeneous signal intensity on T2W-FS imaging, heterogeneous signal intensity on CE-T1W imaging, margin definitions on CE-T1W imaging, and septa were independent predictors for differentiating NF from STS ( P < 0.05). The performance of the radiomics signatures based on T2W-FS imaging (AUC = 0.961) and CE-T1W imaging (AUC = 0.938) was better than that based on T1W-FS imaging (AUC = 0.833). The radiomics nomograms had AUCs of 0.949, which demonstrated good clinical utility and calibration. Conclusion The non-invasive clinical radiomics nomograms exhibited good performance in the differentiation of NF from STS, and they have clinical application in the preoperative diagnosis of diseases.