Radiomics in Head and Neck Cancer Care (2nd Edition)

A special issue of Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694). This special issue belongs to the section "Methods and Technologies Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 May 2026 | Viewed by 431

Special Issue Editor


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Medical Oncology, IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, Via Olgettina 60, 20132 Milan, Italy
Interests: head and neck cancer biology and treatment; immunotherapy; novel treatments; toxicity management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The head and neck cancer (HNC) mortality rate is high regardless of therapeutic strategy, since treatment personalization, currently based on stage, site, and histological parameters, has suboptimal performance. One of the reasons could be the heterogeneous tumor biology, which may be captured by imaging, matching qualitative features of tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with quantitative features.

The study of this process, named “radiomics”, could optimize the therapeutic strategy on a patient-specific basis with an important clinical impact leading to improved personalization of HNC management of different risk groups; therapy could be escalated or de-escalated and the follow-up could be enhanced or delayed, thereby leading to improved outcomes and assessing the relapse risk.

This Special Issue of Cancers encompasses new research articles and timely reviews regarding all aspects of radiomics’ roles and applications in head and neck cancer treatments.

Dr. Aurora Mirabile
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Cancers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • radiomics
  • personalized therapeutic approach
  • radiology
  • improving outcome
  • head and neck cancer
  • imaging biomarkers
  • artificial intelligence

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

16 pages, 805 KB  
Article
Clinical Outcome in Elderly Head and Neck Cancer Patients Treated with Concomitant Cisplatin and Radiotherapy
by Chiara Lucrezia Deantoni, Andrea Galli, Davide Valsecchi, Luca Porcu, Lucrezia Tranò, Laura Giannini, Italo Dell’Oca, Anna Chiara, Vittorio Gioffrè, Moreno Tresoldi, Nadia Gisella Di Muzio, Leone Giordano and Aurora Mirabile
Cancers 2025, 17(18), 3007; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers17183007 - 15 Sep 2025
Viewed by 342
Abstract
Background: Cisplatin (CDDP) concomitant to radiotherapy (RT) is one of the main treatments for locally advanced head and neck squamocellular carcinoma (LA HNSCC); nevertheless, elderly patients are underrepresented in trials and frequently receive less intensive and suboptimal treatments, which often are unimodal, even [...] Read more.
Background: Cisplatin (CDDP) concomitant to radiotherapy (RT) is one of the main treatments for locally advanced head and neck squamocellular carcinoma (LA HNSCC); nevertheless, elderly patients are underrepresented in trials and frequently receive less intensive and suboptimal treatments, which often are unimodal, even if it is well demonstrated how chemoradiotherapy (CRT) with CDDP is superior to RT alone. We aim to analyze clinical feasibility in terms of acute toxicity and treatment adherence in patients receiving concurrent high-dose CDDP and RT with curative or adjuvant intent, comparing elderly (≥65 years) with young (<65 years) patients. Methods: This is a monocentric, observational, prospective study of consecutive LA HNSCC patients treated with high dose CDDP concomitant to RT, from January 2017 to June 2024. The primary aim is to compare the performance of elderly patients with young patients in terms treatment adherence and toxicity, while the secondary aim is to assess treatment efficacy in terms of OS and PFS endpoints. The LA HNSCC patients were selected only by treatment, so all patients who did not receive chemoradiation were excluded. No difference in terms of compliance and toxicity events >G1 in the elderly versus young population is the null hypothesis. Data were analyzed using MedCal statistical software 14.12. A p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: A total of 170 patients were included in the study, according to the selection criteria stated. Only 7 elderly (12.3%) patients received a dose < 200 mg/m2, whereas 163 patients (87.7%) received ≥ 200 mg/m2 and all elderly patients completed RT, indicating a high level of adherence and effective management of treatment protocols, in front of a comparable incidence of acute toxicity to young patients (p-value: 0.84). OS and PFS were not statistically different between elderly and young patients (p = 0.20 and p = 0.72, respectively). Conclusions: Our findings suggest the feasibility of curative oncological treatment for elderly individuals with LA HNSCC, if they are well selected and adequately supported. Future studies should focus on validating and expanding these results to improve patient care and outcomes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Radiomics in Head and Neck Cancer Care (2nd Edition))
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop