Validation of LI-RADS Treatment Response Algorithm after Loco-Regional Therapy of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Abstract

Abstract Background Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third cause of cancer related death worldwide and liver cirrhosis is the most common predisposing factor for HCC. Loco-regional therapy as radiofrequency ablation (RFA) or trans-arterial chemoembolization (TACE) have very important role as potentially curative or palliative methods for treatment of HCC. Objective To investigate the potential application of LI-RADS Treatment Response [LRTR] algorithm in terminology and diagnostic performance after local- regional treatment of hepatic lesions. Methods During the period from September 2021 to March 2022, the present study included 31 patients: 26 were males and 5 were females with hepatocellular carcinoma treated by loco-regional therapy including 21 conventional TACE and 10 RF. Their ages ranged between 51 - 80 years with mean age of 70 years old. Results There were excellent inter-observer agreements between both reader radiologists regarding the classification of treated HCC: LR-TR viable, LR-TR non- viable and LR-TR equivocal according to major features of LIRADS. DWI and ADC as well as T1 and T2 pre-contrast signal are considered good ancillary features in evaluating post treatment response of treated HCC. Conclusion Our study demonstrates that LIRADS treatment response algorithm is a good reporting system for explaining the outcome of the treated HCC with loco-regional therapy as it doesn’t depend only on APHE and mentions that there is expected post-treatment enhancement pattern that does not denote viability. This isn’t found in modified RECIST criteria.