Title: Radiomics and Machine learning in identification of aggressive tumor features in Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC)
Speakers: Meghan Lubner and Dane Morgan
Date: May 24, 2021
Time: 2pm-3pm
Location: Online (Zoom link to be sent closer to the seminar)
Synopsis: Spatial heterogeneity is a common feature of renal cell carcinoma (RCC), with multiple studies demonstrating variability within tumors with respect to pathologic features, genomics, and RNA/protein expression. This heterogeneity gives rise to a spectrum of biologic and clinical behaviors, which are increasingly important to define in the context of increasingly less aggressive management of indolent disease and nephron sparing approaches in cases where intervention is warranted. Pathologic markers of tumor aggressiveness such as higher nuclear grade or presence of sarcomatoid features, while not the only predictor of clinical outcomes, are highly impactful in treatment decision making and prognosis. These aggressive features may only represent a small portion of the tumor and may be challenging to identify on biopsy due to sampling error. The goal of our project was to combine use of radiomics and machine learning to better characterize the imaging signature of aggressive tumor features in RCC. We began by retrospectively extracting a spectrum of radiomics features from a cohort of 141 patients with large RCC, then applying machine learning analysis to the data. We are currently applying our model to clinical outcomes, creating a true deep learning model to identify aggressive features, and performing ex vivo imaging of tumors with precise radiologic/pathologic correlation.
Meghan Lubner is a professor of radiology in the Abdominal Imaging and Intervention section at the University of Wisconsin. She completed her medical degree at the University of Wisconsin, then completed internship and diagnostic radiology residency at Washington University in St. Louis, MO. She then returned to University of Wisconsin where she completed a fellowship in abdominal imaging and intervention and subsequently joined the UW faculty in 2009. She is currently serving as the Modality Director of Clinical Computed Tomography, co-director of the CT research program, associate section chief of abdominal imaging and intervention and president of the UWHC Medical Board. She has an active diagnostic and interventional radiology clinical practice and won a Clinical Physician Excellence award from UWHC in 2012. She is also an active, funded clinical researcher and has published over 150 manuscripts and given numerous invited national and international presentations. Her clinical and research interests include oncologic imaging, advanced CT applications, quantitative CT imaging biomarkers, and image guided interventions. She is a member of several national radiologic societies including Radiologic Society of North America, American Roentgen Ray Society, the American College of Radiology and she is a fellow of the Society of Abdominal Radiology.
Dane Morgan obtained a PhD in Physics from U.C. Berkeley in 1998, was a Postdoctoral Researcher and Research Scientist at MIT until 2004, and is now a Professor in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His work combines thermostatistics, thermokinetics, and informatics analysis with atomic scale calculations to understand and predict materials properties. A major focus of Morgan’s work is energy applications, including fuel cells, batteries, and nuclear materials, but he also works in the areas of high-pressure geoscience and defect properties in semiconductors. Morgan has had extensive interactions with industry, including consulting, serving as vice president of research at energy startup Pellion Technologies (2011), and working with materials informatics company Citrine as a visiting scientist (2019). Morgan is presently training or has graduated/trained over 60 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers and worked with approximately 200 undergraduates in research. He is the Harvey D. Spangler Professor of Engineering and a University of Wisconsin Vilas Scholar, received multiple teaching and research awards, and has published over 280 papers in materials science.