Christophe Nioche

• PhD
• Engineer at the Institut Curie

Total metabolic tumor volume (TMTV) is prognostic in lymphoma. However, cutoff values for risk stratification vary markedly, according to the tumor delineation method used. We aimed to create a standardized TMTV benchmark dataset allowing TMTV to be tested and applied as a reproducible biomarker. Methods: Sixty baseline 18F-FDG PET/CT scans were id...

The normalized distances from the hot spot of radiotracer uptake (SUVmax) to the tumor centroid (NHOC) and to the tumor perimeter (NHOP) have recently been suggested as novel PET features reflecting tumor aggressiveness. These biomarkers characterizing the shift of SUVmax toward the lesion edge during tumor progression have been shown to be prognos...

Filters are commonly used to enhance specific structures and patterns in images, such as vessels or peritumoral regions, to enable clinical insights beyond the visible image using radiomics. However, their lack of standardization restricts reproducibility and clinical translation of radiomics decision support tools. In this special report, teams of...

The real-world implementation of federated learning is complex and requires research and development actions at the crossroad between different domains ranging from data science, to software programming, networking, and security. While today several FL libraries are proposed to data scientists and users, most of these frameworks are not designed to...

Introduction The delineation of target volumes and organs at risk is the main source of uncertainty in radiation therapy (RT)(1). Numerous inter-observer variability (IOV) studies have been conducted, often with unclear methodology and non-standardized reporting. We aimed to identify the parameters chosen in conducting delineation IOV studies and a...

PurposeTo evaluate whether radiomics from [18F]-FDG PET and/or MRI before re-irradiation (reRT) of recurrent head and neck cancer (HNC) could predict the occurrence and the location “in-field” or “outside” of a second locoregional recurrence (LR).Methods Among the 55 patients re-irradiated at curative intend for HNC from 2012 to 2019, 48 had an MRI...

We evaluated the prognostic role of the largest distance between two lesions (Dmax), defined by positron emission tomography (PET) in a retrospective cohort of newly diagnosed classical Hodgkin Lymphoma (cHL) patients. We also explored the molecular bases underlying Dmax through a gene expression analysis of diagnostic biopsies.We included patients...

Background Translation of predictive and prognostic image‐based learning models to clinical applications is challenging due in part to their lack of interpretability. Some deep‐learning‐based methods provide information about the regions driving the model output. Yet, due to the high‐level abstraction of deep features, these methods do not complete...

Background: Several reports have suggested that radiotherapy after reconstructive surgery for head and neck cancer (HNC), could have deleterious effects on the flaps with respect to functional outcomes. To predict and prevent toxicities, flap delineation should be accurate and reproducible. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the int...

Radiomics has undergone considerable development in recent years. In PET imaging, very promising results concerning the ability of handcrafted features to predict the biological characteristics of lesions and to assess patient prognosis or response to treatment have been reported in the literature. This article presents a checklist for designing a...

Dissemination, expressed recently by the largest Euclidian distance between lymphoma sites (SDmax), appeared a promising risk factor in DLBCL patients. We investigated alternative distance metrics to characterize the robustness of the dissemination information. In 290 patients from the REMARC trial (NCT01122472), the Euclidean (Euc), Manhattan (Man...

Objectives: Translational applications of predictive and prognostic image-based learning models are challenging due to their lack of interpretability. When using deep learning, Class Activation Maps (CAM) give information about the regions driving the models. Yet, due to the high-level abstraction of deep features, deep CAM are difficult to interpr...

We assessed the predictive value of new radiomic features characterizing the lesion dissemination in baseline 18F-FDG PET and tested whether combining them with baseline metabolic tumour volume (MTV) could improve prediction of progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients.

Objective: Quantitative analysis in MRI is challenging due to variabilities in intensity distributions across patients, acquisitions and scanners and suffers from bias field inhomogeneity. Radiomic studies are impacted by these effects that affect radiomic feature values. This paper describes a dedicated pipeline to increase reproducibility in brea...

Background We analysed the prognostic value of a new baseline PET parameter reflecting the spread of the disease, the largest distance between two lesions (Dmax). We tested its complementarity to metabolic tumor volume (MTV) in a large cohort of diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients from the REMARC trial (NCT01122472). Patients and method...

Objective: Test a practical realignment approach to compensate the technical variability of MR radiomic features. Methods: T1 phantom images acquired on 2 scanners, FLAIR and contrast-enhanced T1-weighted (CE-T1w) images of 18 brain tumor patients scanned on both 1.5-T and 3-T scanners, and 36 T2-weighted (T2w) images of prostate cancer patients...

Background Radiomic features may quantify characteristics present in medical imaging. However, the lack of standardized definitions and validated reference values have hampered clinical use. Purpose To standardize a set of 174 radiomic features. Materials and Methods Radiomic features were assessed in three phases. In phase I, 487 features were der...

Purpose: To design and validate a preprocessing procedure dedicated to T2-weighted MR images of lung cancers so as to improve the ability of radiomic features to distinguish between adenocarcinoma and other histological types. Materials and Methods: A discovery set of 52 patients with advanced lung cancer who underwent T2-weighted MR imaging at 3 T...

We assessed the prognostic value of new radiomic features (RF) characterizing the lesion dissemination in baseline 18F-FDG PET and tested whether combining them with baseline metabolic tumour volume (MTV) could improve prediction of progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in DLBCL patients. Methods: From the LNH073B trial (NCT0049...

Background: Radiation-induced leukoencephalopathy (RIL) is the most threatening delayed complication of cerebral radiotherapy (RT) and remains roughly defined by cognitive dysfunction associated with diffuse FLAIR MRI white matter hyperintensities after brain irradiation. We documented clinical, neuropsychological, and radiological aspects of RI i...

Purpose The purpose of this retrospective study was to This retrospective study aims to evaluate the potential use of MRI TA to predict the outcome and relapse of locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) in patients undergoing Chemo-radiotherapy (C-RT) before radical surgery (TME). Methods This study regarded patients affected to glioblastoma and tre...

Purpose This work aims to evaluate the possibility to use volumetric Texture analysis (TA) of T2 images and ADC maps to predict the clinical output in patients affected by advanced rectal cancer (LARC). Methods For this work were considered patients with non-mucinous extraperitoneal rectum adenocarcinoma with different degree of differentiation tr...

Background To help interpret measurements in breast tissue and breast tumors from ¹⁸F-FDG PET scans, we studied the influence of age in measurements of PET parameters in normal breast tissue and in a breast cancer (BC) population. Results 522 women were included: 331 pts without history of BC (B-VOI) and 191 patients with BC (T-VOI). In B-VOI, the...

Textural and shape analysis is gaining considerable interest in medical imaging, particularly to identify parameters characterizing tumor heterogeneity and to feed radiomic models. Here, we present a free, multiplatform, and easy-to-use freeware called LIFEx, which enables the calculation of conventional, histogram-based, textural, and shape featur...

Few methodological studies regarding widely used textural indices robustness in MRI have been reported. In this context, this study aims to propose some rules to compute reliable textural indices from multimodal 3D brain MRI. Diagnosis and post-biopsy MR scans including T1, post-contrast T1, T2 and FLAIR images from thirty children with diffuse int...

Objectif En imagerie TEP, les études multicentriques sont limitées car les mesures effectuées sur les images (SUV et autres index radiomiques) sont sensibles aux protocoles d’acquisition et de reconstruction. Notre but est de valider l’utilisation de la méthode d’harmonisation ComBat afin de supprimer l’« effet centre » dans les études multicentriq...

Purpose: Image texture analysis (TA) is a heterogeneity quantifying approach that cannot be appreciated by the naked eye, and early evidence suggests that TA has great potential in the field of oncology. The aim of this study is to evaluate parotid gland texture analysis (TA) combined with formal dosimetry as a factor for predicting severe late xe...

Introduction: Several reports have shown that radiomic feature values are affected by the acquisition and reconstruction parameters, thus hampering multicenter studies. We propose a method to standardize features measured from Positron Emission Tomography (PET) images obtained using different imaging protocols to remove the center effect while pres...

Background Radiomics extracts features from medical images more precisely and more accurately than visual assessment. However, radiomics features are affected by CT scanner parameters such as reconstruction kernel or section thickness, thus obscuring underlying biologically important texture features. Purpose To investigate whether a compensation m...

Objectives: Tumor heterogeneity characterization using image-derived biomarkers is gaining considerable interest in medical imaging and is the basis of radiomics. Retrospective studies demonstrate that some image-derived heterogeneity biomarkers (IDHB) have a prognostic value. Yet, there is a huge spread of results in terms of the relevant IDHB, im...

Objectives: To identify an imaging signature predicting local recurrence for locally advanced cervical cancer (LACC) treated by chemoradiation and brachytherapy from baseline 18F-FDG PET images, and to evaluate the possibility of gathering images from two different PET scanners in a radiomic study. Methods: 118 patients were included retrospective...

Purpose/Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the possibility of gathering images from 2 different PET devices in a radiomic study, and to propose a signature of local recurrence for locally advanced cervical cancer (LACC). Material/Methods: 118 patients with LACC were retrospectively included. All patients underwent a 18F-FDG PET-CT sc...

Introduction Le cancer du sein (BC) est le cancer le plus fréquent chez la femme en France et de nombreuses études ont étudié la corrélation entre les données SUV et les indices de texture (TI) en TEP. Pour aider l’interprétation des données SUV et TI dans le tissu mammaire, nous avons étudié l’influence de l’âge et de l’indice de masse corporel (I...

Objectifs Le volume tumoral métabolique total (VTMT) mesurable en TEP au FDG est un biomarqueur prometteur de la charge tumorale, tout particulièrement chez les patients atteints de lymphomes. Cependant, la fiabilité de la mesure dépend de la qualité de la segmentation des régions hypermétaboliques, segmentation complexe en cas de sites multiples....

Objectif La caractérisation de l’hétérogénéité tumorale à partir de l’analyse de texture des images TEP a montré des résultats encourageants pour prédire la réponse aux traitements ou la survie des patients. Dans ce contexte, notre objectif est de sélectionner un petit ensemble de biomarqueurs spécifiques d’un type tumoral, puis de construire un mo...

Objectifs Plusieurs etudes ont montre que les index de texture (IT) issus des images TEP sont influences par les parametres d’acquisition et de reconstruction, ce qui complique la realisation d’etudes multicentriques et empeche l’analyse conjointe de donnees acquises dans differentes conditions. Nous proposons une methode de standardisation afin de...

Objectifs Le volume tumoral metabolique total (VTMT) mesurable en TEP au FDG est un biomarqueur prometteur de la charge tumorale. Cependant, sa fiabilite depend de la justesse de la segmentation des regions hypermetaboliques, variable en fonction de la qualite des images et de la methode de segmentation utilisee. Nous avons etudie la variabilite du...

Introduction Pour completer les index conventionnels (SUVs, volume metabolique (VM), TLG), des index de texture (IT) peuvent etre calcules a partir des images TEP. Cependant, suivant le mode de calcul, ils sont souvent correles soit au SUV, soit au VM, ce qui complique leur interpretation. Pour elucider leur sensibilite suivant la repartition spati...

Introduction: The use of texture indices (TI) to characterize tumor heterogeneity from Positron Emission Tomography (PET) images is increasingly investigated in retrospective studies. Yet, the interpretation of PET-derived TI values has not been thoroughly reported. Furthermore, the calculation of TI lacks a standardized methodology, making it dif...

Objectives We assessed the ability of textural features to predict recurrence of cervix cancer using pre-treatment 18F-FDG PET images. Methods 118 patients with cervical cancer treated in Gustave Roussy (GR) between 2005 and 2014 were retrospectively included. All patients underwent a 18F-FDG PET-CT scan in GR before radiotherapy: 77 on a Siemens...

Objectifs L’analyse de texture se développe fortement en imagerie médicale, en particulier pour identifier des paramètres qui pourraient caractériser l’hétérogénéité tumorale. Des résultats publiés suggèrent que des paramètres de texture estimés à partir d’images TEP et CT notamment pourraient contribuer à la classification des tumeurs et faciliter...

Objectifs Nous avons evalue les performances diagnostiques de la quantification en TEP a la 18F-Dopa pour les syndromes parkinsoniens et l’impact de la correction de l’effet de volume partiel (EVP). Patients et methodes Nous avons mis en concordance spatiale les images TEP avec les IRM de 49 patients (50 examens) adresses de maniere prospective pou...

Objectifs La qualité des images en TEP/TDM à la FDopa permet d’envisager, en plus de l’indice conventionnel SUVpeak, l’analyse de la texture tissulaire des gliomes. Nous avons évalué l’intérêt de combiner deux informations différentes et complémentaires des tumeurs, l’hétérogénéité et le SUVpeak, pour identifier le grade tumoral. Tous nos patients...

We investigated the functional reconfiguration of the cerebral networks involved in imagination of sequential movements of the left foot, both performed at regular and fast speed after mental imagery training. Thirty-five volunteers were scanned with a 3T MRI while they imagined a sequence of ankle movements (dorsiflexion, plantar flexion, varus an...

Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare various acquisition and processing protocols for noninvasive glioma grading using either static or dynamic (18)F-FDopa PET. Methods: Dynamic studies were performed in 33 patients. Based on histopathological analysis, 18 patients had a high-grade (HG) tumor and 15 patients had a low-grade (LG) tumor....

Background and purpose: Stapes surgery for otosclerosis can be challenging when the oval window niche is narrow. We analyzed the reliability of CT to evaluate the height of the OWN and propose a quantitative criterion to distinguish normal and narrow OWNs. Materials and methods: Fifty-six patients were scheduled for primary stapes surgery and, w...

Previous structural data obtained with diffusion tensor imaging axonal tracking have demonstrated possible in vivo connections between the human red nucleus (RN) and the sensorimotor and associative cortical areas. However, tractographic reconstructions can include false trajectories because of, for instance, the low spatial resolution of diffusion...

Language is a primary factor in comprehending the functional organization of the brain. Starting with the static anatomoclinical model, followed by the limited aphasiological model, functional imaging techniques have allowed a more dynamic approach that adds complexity to the study of the interaction between brain and language, and bespeak the infl...

The localization of functional areas obtained from functional MRI (fMRI) is useful for patients suffering from tumors contiguous to eloquent brain areas. fRMI is an efficient tool in the strategy of treatment of low grade oligodendroglioamas in the rolandic area in intact or slightly impaired patients. It can be used preoperatively to assess motor...

Crossed anarthria cases are uncommon and rather old. We report the case of a right-handed 55-year-old man who presented crossed pure anarthria due to a hemorrhage in the premotor cortex (feet of F1 and F2) and in the high part of Pierre-Marie's quadrangle. The study of different tasks (articulation, verbal fluency, direct object word-generation fro...

Introduction Crossed anarthria cases are uncommon and rather old. Observation We report the case of a right-handed 55-year-old man who presented crossed pure anarthria due to a hemorrhage in the premotor cortex (feet of F1 and F2) and in the high part of Pierre-Marie's quadrangle. Conclusion The study of different tasks (articulation, verbal flue...

The localization of functional areas obtained from functional MRI (fMRI) is useful for patients suffering from tumors contiguous to eloquent brain areas. fRMI is an efficient tool in the strategy of treatment of low grade oligodendroglioamas in the rolandic area in intact or slightly impaired patients. It can be used preoperatively to assess motor...

Objectifs l’étude du langage en IRM Fonctionnelle (IRMF) est essentiellement basée sur des tests de fluence qui explorent plutôt les régions antérieures. De plus, la plupart des études de références sont basées sur des volontaires droitiers. Les buts de notre étude sont 1) de définir une série de tests explorant le plus largement possible les zones...

The value of functional MR Imaging (fMRI) in assessing language lateralization in epileptic patients candidate for surgical treatment is increasingly recognized. However few data are available for left-handed patients. Moreover determining factors for atypical dominance in patients investigated with contemporary imaging have not been reported. We s...

The aim of functional brain magnetic resonance imaging studies is to determine which regions of the brain are related to a given specific task. Different methods can be used to extract the functional signal and there is currently no consensus for this operation. Measures based on correlation are only relevant for a single task. In this paper, we pr...

Improvement of neurosurgical techniques with a more detailed description of brain tumors and their functional environment. We performed: (1) anatomical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for reference, (2) functional sequences dedicated to the adjacent cortical structures (sensorimotor, visual, language paradigms), and (3) thallium 201 cerebral tomos...

Residual activation of the cortex was investigated in nine patients with complete spinal cord injury between T6 and L1 by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Brain activations were recorded under four conditions: (1) a patient attempting to move his toes with flexion-extension, (2) a patient imagining the same movement, (3) passive propri...

The purpose was to incorporate preoperative functional imaging data into anatomic data of operative microscope for neurosurgical procedures of patients suffering from lesions contiguous to eloquent brain areas. The day before surgery, patients bearing scalp markers underwent fMRI, just before anatomical contrast-enhanced MR images. FMRI data analys...

To evaluate residual activity in the sensorimotor cortex of the lower limbs in paraplegia. 5 patients suffering from a complete paralysis after traumatic medullar lesion (ASIA=A). Clinical evaluation of motility and sensitivity. 1. Control functional MR study of the sensorimotor cortex during simultaneous movements of hands, imaginary motor task an...

A more extensive description of brain disease for radiotherapy and neurosurgery treatment planning can be obtained by co-registering functional image sets, obtained from ²⁰¹Tl-SPECT and/or fMRI, with corresponding anatomical image sets, obtained from MRI or CT. Using the external edge of the head, which is visible on both the functional...