Abstract

Accurate gross classification through imaging is critical for determination of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patient prognoses and treatment strategies. The present retrospective study evaluated the utility of contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CE-CT) combined with gadolinium-ethoxybenzyl diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (EOB-MRI) for diagnosis and classification of HCCs prior to surgery. Ninety-four surgically resected HCC nodules were classified as simple nodular (SN), SN with extranodular growth (SN-EG), confluent multinodular (CMN), or infiltrative (IF) types. SN-EG, CMN and IF samples were grouped as non-SN. The abilities of the two imaging modalities to differentiate non-SN from SN HCCs were assessed using the EOB-MRI hepatobiliary phase and CE-CT arterial, portal, and equilibrium phases. Areas under the ROC curves for non-SN diagnoses were 0.765 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.666–0.846) for CE-CT, 0.877 (95% CI: 0.793–0.936) for EOB-MRI, and 0.908 (95% CI: 0.830–0.958) for CE-CT plus EOB-MRI. Sensitivities, specificities, and accuracies with respect to identification of non-SN tumors of all sizes were 71.4%, 81.6%, and 75.5% for CE-CT; 96.4%, 78.9%, and 89.3% for EOB-MRI; and 98.2%, 84.2%, and 92.5% for CE-CT plus EOB-MRI. These results show that CE-CT combined with EOB-MRI offers a more accurate imaging evaluation for HCC gross classification than either modality alone.

Highlights

  • Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the sixth most common malignancy, and the third most common cause of cancer-associated deaths worldwide [1]

  • The present retrospective study evaluated the utility of contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CE-CT) combined with gadolinium-ethoxybenzyl diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (EOB-MRI) for diagnosis and classification of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) prior to surgery

  • Sensitivities, specificities, and accuracies with respect to identification of non-simple nodular (SN) tumors of all sizes were 71.4%, 81.6%, and 75.5% for CE-CT; 96.4%, 78.9%, and 89.3% for EOB-MRI; and 98.2%, 84.2%, and 92.5% for CE-CT plus EOB-MRI. These results show that CE-CT combined with EOB-MRI offers a more accurate imaging evaluation for HCC gross classification than either modality alone

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Summary

Introduction

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the sixth most common malignancy, and the third most common cause of cancer-associated deaths worldwide [1]. HCCs exhibit morphological polymorphism according to their gross classification [2], which is closely related to prognosis, including post-treatment recurrence and patient survival rates [3,4,5,6]. This relationship has been validated in patients undergoing hepatic resection and living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) [7]. HCC gross classification is usually performed using resected specimens. Accurate gross classification via pre-treatment imaging is vital for improved HCC management [12]

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