Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-8-2016
Abstract
AIM: To elucidate causes for false negative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exams by identifying imaging characteristics that predict viable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in lesions previously treated with locoregional therapy when obvious findings of recurrence are absent.
METHODS: This retrospective institutional review board-approved and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-compliant study included patients who underwent liver transplantation at our center between 1/1/2000 and 12/31/2012 after being treated for HCC with locoregional therapy. All selected patients had a contrast-enhanced MRI after locoregional therapy within 90 d of transplant that was prospectively interpreted as without evidence of residual or recurrent tumor. Retrospectively, 2 radiologists, blinded to clinical and pathological data, independently reviewed the pre-transplant MRIs for 7 imaging features. Liver explant histopathology provided the reference standard, with clinically significant tumor defined as viable tumor ≥ 1.0 cm in maximum dimension. Fisher's exact test was first performed to identify significant imaging features.
RESULTS: Inclusion criteria selected for 42 patients with 65 treated lesions. Fourteen of 42 patients (33%) and 16 of 65 treated lesions (25%) had clinically significant viable tumor on explant histology. None of the 7 imaging findings examined could reliably and reproducibly determine which treated lesion had viable tumor when the exam had been prospectively read as without evidence of viable HCC.
CONCLUSION: After locoregional therapy some treated lesions that do not demonstrate any MRI evidence of HCC will contain viable tumor. As such even patients with a negative MRI following treatment should receive regular short-term imaging surveillance because some have occult viable tumor. The possibility of occult tumor should be a consideration when contemplating any action which might delay liver transplant.
Recommended Citation
Becker-Weidman, David; Civan, Jesse M.; Deshmukh, Sandeep P.; Roth, Christopher G.; Herrine, Steven K.; Parker, Laurence; and Mitchell, Donald G., "Hepatocellular carcinoma after locoregional therapy: Magnetic resonance imaging findings in falsely negative exams." (2016). Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Faculty Papers. Paper 79.
https://jdc.jefferson.edu/gastro_hepfp/79
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
PubMed ID
27326315
Language
English
Comments
This article is the authors’ final published version in World Journal of Hepatology, Volume 8, Issue 16, June 2016, Pages 685-690.
The published version is available at https://doi.org/10.4254/wjh.v8.i16.685. Copyright © Becker-Weidman et al.