Spatially aware radiomics integrating anatomical knowledge to improve lymph node malignancy prediction in head and neck cancer

Key Points

• Incoporating lymphatic anatomy enhances predictive performance of models, improving outcomes.
• Predictive performance increased by integrating clinical context within radiomics frameworks for head and neck cancer.
• Analysis reveals enhanced interpretability of models, aligning better with existing clinical workflows for practitioners.
• This approach may enable personalized radiation therapy planning, but further research is needed to validate findings.