Distinguishing Retroperitoneal Fibrosis and Sarcoma from Other Retroperitoneal Diseases Via Radiomics

The aim of this project is to develop a radiomics algorithm that can reliably identify retroperitoneal fibrosis (Ormond's disease) and retroperitoneal sarcomas, automatically segment them and differentiate them from other retroperitoneal diseases. Radiomics is a technique that uses artificial intelligence to extract characteristics from radiological image data that are not visible to humans and to identify image morphological patterns of diseases. As it is difficult to differentiate between diseases using image data alone, clinical data such as symptoms and laboratory values are to be correlated with the image data and utilized by the algorithm. Among other things, this should increase the sensitivity, accuracy and specificity of image-based diagnostics in order to enable faster, non-invasive diagnosis.

Inclusion criteria

• Patients of any age or gender.
• CT scans confirming the presence of a retroperitoneal mass.
• Confirmed diagnosis of retroperitoneal fibrosis, sarcoma or other malignancies (i.e. lymphoma, germ cell tumors, metastasis, infections, ganglioneuromas) through pathology reports or clinical follow-up.

Exclusion criteria

• Poor quality CT scans where the region of interest is not clearly visible.
• Previous treatments or surgeries that might alter the radiomic features of the tumors.