“Radiotranscriptomics”: A synergy of imaging and transcriptomics in clinical assessment

Abstract

Recent advances in quantitative imaging and “omics” technology have generated a wealth of mineable biological “big data”. With the push towards a P4 “predictive, preventive, personalized, and participatory” approach to medicine, researchers began integrating complementary tools to further tune existing diagnostic and therapeutic models. The field of radiogenomics has long pioneered such multidisciplinary investigations in neuroscience and oncology, correlating genotypic and phenotypic signatures to study structural and functional changes in relation to altered molecular behavior. Given the innate dynamic nature of complex disorders and the role of environmental and epigenetic factors in pathogenesis, the transcriptome can further elucidate serial modifications undetected at the genome level.We therefore propose “radiotranscriptomics” as a new member of the P4 medicine initiative, combining transcriptome information, including gene expression and isoform variation, and quantitative image annotations.