Decisions on how to treat prostate cancer with radiation therapy are guideline-based but as such guidelines have been developed for populations of patients, this invariably leads to overly aggressive treatment in some patients and insufficient treatment in others.

Heterogeneity within prostate tumors and in metastatic sites, even within the same patient, is believed to be a major cause of treatment failure. Radiomics biomarkers, more commonly referred to as radiomics ‘features”, provide readily available, cost-effective, non-invasive tools for screening, detecting tumors and serial monitoring of patients, including assessments of response to therapy and identification of therapeutic complications. Radiomics offers the potential to analyse whole tumors in 3D, as well as sub-regions or ‘habitats’ within tumors. Combining quantitative information from imaging with pathology, demographic details and other biomarkers will pave the way for personalised treatment selection and monitoring in prostate cancer. The aim of this review is to consider if MRI-based radiomics can bridge the gap between population-based management and personalised management of prostate cancer.

关于如何用放射疗法治疗前列腺癌的决定是基于指南的，但是由于已经针对患者群制定了这样的指南，因此必然导致某些患者过度积极的治疗而另一些患者的治疗不足。

甚至在同一患者中，前列腺肿瘤内和转移部位内的异质性也被认为是治疗失败的主要原因。放射性化合物生物标志物，通常被称为放射性化合物“特征”，提供了易于获得，具有成本效益的非侵入性工具，用于筛查，检测肿瘤和对患者进行连续监测，包括评估对治疗的反应和鉴定治疗并发症。Radiomics提供了以3D方式分析整个肿瘤以及肿瘤中的子区域或“栖息地”的潜力。将影像学的定量信息与病理学，人口统计学细节和其他生物标记物相结合，将为前列腺癌的个性化治疗选择和监测铺平道路。