Clinical Research Directory

Habitat Analysis of Tumor Thrombus for Vena Cava Wall Invasion in Renal Cell Carcinoma

Tumor thrombus in the inferior vena cava can invade the vessel wall. Doctors must know the invasion status before surgery. The status changes the surgical plan. Preoperative imaging has limited accuracy for wall invasion. Habitat imaging divides a tumor into subregions. Each subregion is a habitat. The method uses voxel-level image features. This study will test whether habitat imaging can diagnose inferior vena cava wall invasion. The participants have renal cell carcinoma with renal vein or inferior vena cava tumor thrombus. The study will use existing preoperative contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images. The reference standard is the pathology report from surgery. The primary measurement is the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of the habitat model for wall invasion. The study will also measure sensitivity, specificity, calibration, and clinical utility. In an exploratory analysis, the study will compare imaging habitats with spatial transcriptomic regions. The study will use available Visium data from two participants. This is a retrospective observational study. The study has no intervention. The study will not change clinical care. The results will show whether habitat imaging can support preoperative planning.