ObjectiveTo assess the feasibility of intravoxel incoherent motion diffusion-weighted imaging (IVIM) in evaluating microvessel density (MVD) and microvascular invasion (MVI) of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).MethodsRat models were established to be scanned by IVIM. HCC lesions corresponding to IVIM image were examined pathologically to get data of MVD and MVI. Spearman correlation analysis was used to compare the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), D, D*, and f with MVD, independent samples t test was used to compare ADC, D, D*, and f between MVI (+) and MVI (–) groups.ResultsFifty HCC lesions were included finally. ADC and D values both showed a negative correlation with MVD (r=–0.406, P=0.003; r=–0.468, P=0.001), D* and f showed no statistical correlation with MVD (P=0.172, 0.074, respectively). The differences in ADC and all the IVIM parameters (D, D*, and f) between MVI (+) and MVI (–) HCCs were not statistically significant (P=0.393, 0.395, 0.221, 0.550).ConclusionADC and D can be used to evaluate MVD of HCC, but ADC and IVIM parameters were limited in evaluating MVI.
ObjectiveTo evaluate therapeutical effects of Huaier granule combined with transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) following radical resection of primary hepatocellular carcinoma with microvascular invasion.
MethodsThe clinical data of 45 cases of primary hepatocellular carcinoma with microvascular invasion underwent Huaier granule combined with transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) following radical resection from June 2010 to June 2013 in Liaoning Cancer Hospital were retrospectively analyzed. These patients were divided into Huaier granule plus TACE treatment group (20 cases) and simple TACE treatment group (25 cases) according to the postoperative treatment of the patients. The immune function (CD4+/CD8+ ratio and IL-2 level), 1and 3-year tumor recurrence rates and 3-year cumulative survival rate were compared between two groups after operation.
Result① The CD4+/CD8+ ratio and IL-2 level had no significant differences between the 2 groups before operation (P > 0.05), which in the Huaier granule plus TACE treatment group were significantly higher than those in the simple TACE treatment group (P < 0.05) on month 3, 6, and 12 after operation.② 1and 3-year tumor recurrence rates in the Huaier granule plus TACE treatment group were significantly lower than those in the simple TACE treatment group[15% (3/20) versus 48% (12/25), P < 0.05; 45% (9/20) versus 80% (20/25), P < 0.05]. ③ The 3-year cumulative survival rate was 75% and 68% in the Huaier granule plus TACE treatment group and the simple TACE treatment group, respectively. The survival curve analysis showed that the 3-year survival rate had a decreased trend, which in the Huaier granule plus TACE treatment group was slightly higher than that in the simple TACE treatment group, but the difference had no statistical significance between the 2 groups (P > 0.05).
ConclusionsAlthough the results of this study fails to confirm that Huaier granule plus TACE treatment for primary hepatocellular carcinoma with microvascular invasion following radical resection could significantly improve the 3-year cumulative survival rate, it could effectively decrease the recurrence rate. It is needed larger sample size to further explore in future research.
ObjectiveTo detect the expression of FXYD domain-containing ion transport regulator 6 (FXYD6) protein in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues and the corresponding paracancerous liver tissues, and to explore the clinical significance of FXYD6 protein expression in hepatocellular carcinoma.MethodsEighty hepatocellular carcinoma tissues and the corresponding 40 paracancerous tissues were retrospectively collected in Cangzhou Central Hospital from March 2012 to January 2018, and the expression of FXYD6 protein was examined in these tissues by strept avidin-biotin complex (SABC) immunohistochemistry. We analyzed the relationship between the expression of FXYD6 protein and clinicopathological characteristics of the patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, and the relationship between the expression of the protein and early recurrence or overall survival.ResultsThe positive expression rate of FXYD6 protein was statistically higher in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues than that in the corresponding paracancerous tissues [77.5% (62/80) vs. 40.0% (16/40), P<0.001]. Its expression in hepatocellular carcinoma was not related with gender, age, histological differentiation, tumor maximum diameter, tumor number, AFP concentration in serum, and HBV or HCV infection (P>0.05), but with integrity of tumor capsule, microvascular invasion, and tumor stage (P<0.05). The positive FXYD6 protein expression group had a significantly higher recurrence rate than that of the negative FXYD6 protein expression group [53.2% (33/62) vs. 16.7% (3/18), P=0.006]. However, multivariate analysis results showed that high FXYD6 protein expression was not a risk factor for early relapse (P=0.422). The positive FXYD6 protein expression group had a significantly shorter postoperative survival than the negative FXYD6 expression group ( P=0.043). However, multivariate analysis results showed high FXYD6 protein expression was not a risk factor for overall survival (P=0.754).ConclusionsFXYD6 protein was expressed abnormally in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues, which might be involved in the carcinogenesis and the progression of hepatocellular carcinoma. It might be a poor prognostic factor for patient with hepatocellular carcinoma.
ObjectiveTo summarize research progress of molecular imaging in microvascular invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma.MethodThe literatures about the molecular imaging in recent years at home and abroad on the microvascular invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma were reviewed and analyzed.ResultsThe molecular imaging methods such as the Gd-EOB-DTPA enhanced scan, irrelevant movement within voxel diffusion weighted imaging, energy spectrum CT imaging, MR molecular probe imaging, etc. from the aspect of the microstructure multimodally studied the biological behaviors and characteristics of the disease had become the research hot topic and the development direction in the future, which played an important role in the early diagnosis and assessment of the microvascular invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma.ConclusionResearch method of molecular imaging has a prosperous prospect of clinical application in microvascular invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma.
ObjectiveTo explore the influence of 5 mm surgical margin (SM) width on the prognosis of patients with solitary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and the influence of tumor size and microvascular invasion (MVI) on strategic decision of SM width.MethodsThe clinicopathologic data of patients with solitary HCC underwent the surgical resection in the West China Hospital of Sichuan University from January 2014 to September 2015 were collected. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria of this study, the prognostic differences of the patients with SM≤5 mm and SM>5 mm were compared after the propensity score matching (PSM), and the influences of the 5 mm SM on the recurrence-free survival rate of large HCC (>5 cm) or small HCC (≤5 cm) and MVI positive or negative patients were analyzed.ResultsA total of 266 eligible patients were included, with a median overall survival of 40.01 months and a median recurrence-free survival of 37.01 months. During the follow-up period, 137 patients recurred and 75 patients died. After PSM, the basic indexes had no significant differences between the patients with SM>5 mm (n=78) and SM≤5 mm (n=78). The results of the multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that the tumor size and MVI were the important factors of the recurrence-free survival (P<0.05) and the tumor size, MVI, HBeAg, and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) were the important factors of the overall survival (P<0.05) before the PSM; while the MVI and SM were the important factors of the recurrence-free survival (P<0.05), the gender, AFP, and MVI were the important factors of the overall survival (P<0.05) after the PSM. The recurrence-free survival rate of the patients with SM >5 mm had better than that with SM≤5 mm after the PSM, but the overall survival had no difference. In the MVI negative and large HCC subgroups, the patients with SM>5 mm showed the better recurrence-free survival rate. However, in the MVI positive and small HCC subgroups did not show any differences in the recurrence-free survival rate for the different SM widths.ConclusionsAccording to the results of this study, a wider SM (>5 mm) could improve recurrence-free survival in patients with a single tumor within BCLC stage 0/A. For patients without MVI or large HCC, SM>5 mm might be adequate. However, for patients with MVI or small HCC, the determination of an appropriate SM width needs further to be investigated.
ObjectiveTo explore the predictive value of serum prothrombin induced by vitamin K absence-Ⅱ (PIVKA-Ⅱ) detection for the biological characteristics of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-associated hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).MethodsThis retrospective study included 394 patients with HBV-related HCC who were newly diagnosed and treated with surgical resection in West China Hospital of Sichuan University between June 2017 and December 2018. Their clinical information such as tumor size, tumor number, tumor cell differentiation, presence of microvascular invasion (MVI), distant metastasis, and portal vein tumor thrombus was collected from the medical record. The laboratory test results of patients during diagnosis and before surgery were collected, including alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), PIVKA-Ⅱ, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), gamma-glutamyl transferase (γ-GGT), etc., and the relationships between PIVKA-Ⅱ levels and tumor biological characteristics were analyzed. Non-normal continuous variables were presented as medium (lower quartile, upper quartile).ResultsCompared with the patients with low HCC serum PIVKA-Ⅱ levels (≤40 mAU/mL), patients with high serum PIVKA-Ⅱ levels (>40 mAU/mL) had larger tumor diameters [5.00 (3.00, 9.00) vs. 2.50 (1.63, 4.95) cm, P<0.001], more severe Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stage (P<0.001), and higher AFP [186.05 (6.86, 1 210.00) vs. 17.83 (4.33, 231.95) ng/mL, P<0.001], ALT [38.00 (26.00, 66.25) vs. 32.00 (22.00, 51.00) U/L, P=0.018], AST [42.00 (30.00, 76.00) vs. 34.00 (25.50, 48.25) U/L, P<0.001], and γ-GGT [71.00 (39.00, 165.50) vs. 55.50 (25.00, 93.00) U/L, P=0.005], and were more likely to form portal vein tumor thrombi (16.61% vs. 3.75%, P=0.003) and MVI (43.67% vs. 11.11%, P<0.001). In BCLC stage 0 HCC patients, the positive rate of PIVKA-Ⅱ was only 51.35%. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that PIVKA-Ⅱ>40 mAU/mL was an independent predictor of MVI [odds ratio=6.588, 95% confidence interval (CI) (1.645, 26.383), P=0.008]. The area under receiver operating characteristic curve of PIVKA-Ⅱ level predicting MVI was 0.761 [95%CI (0.693, 0.830)], with a sensitivity of 66.22% and a specificity of 79.06%.ConclusionIn HBV-related HCC patients, high PIVKA-Ⅱ is associated with the poor biological characteristics of tumor, and is an independent risk factor for tumor MVI.
Objective
To summarize the research progress of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in evaluating microvascular invasion (MVI) of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in order to provide information and evidence for therapy of HCC.
Methods
Papers published from May 1950 to May 2017, were retrieved in PubMed, OVID, CNKI database using the keywords on hepatocellular carcinoma, microvascular invasion, and magnetic resonance imaging. Sixty-seven papers were retrieved in English literatures and 13 in Chinese literatures. Criteria of paper adoption: ① the imaging method was MRI; ② the assessment content was MVI of HCC; ③ the golden standard was postoperative pathologic diagnosis. fifty-four papers were finally analyzed and reviewed.
Results
Currently there were various ways to evaluating the MVI of HCC using MRI, including morphology, texture analysis, diffusion-weighted imaging, dynamic-enhanced MRI, fat assessment, hepatocellular function and comprehensive evaluation.
Conclusions
Various methods perform differently in evaluating MVI. The use of multiparametric MRI techniques offers the potential for comprehensive assessment of MVI of HCC.
Objective To explore the correlation between lymph node metastasis and clinicopathological features of lung adenocarcinoma with diameter≤3 cm. Methods The clinicopathologic data of the patients with lung adenocarcinoma≤3 cm in diameter were retrospectively analyzed. The relationship between lymph node metastasis and age, gender, smoking history, pathological subtype, tumor diameter, pleural invasion, vascular invasion and other factors was analyzed. The risk factors of lymph node metastasis were analyzed by univariate and multivariate logistic regression. Results Finally 1 718 patients were collected, including 697 males and 1 021 females with an average age of (58.89±9.85) years. The total lymph node metastasis rate was 12.9%, among whom 452 patients of adenocarcinoma in situ and minimally invasive adenocarcinoma did not have lymph node metastasis, and the lymph node metastasis rate of invasive lung adenocarcinoma was 17.5%. Multivariate analysis showed that tumor diameter, micropapillary subtype, solid subtype, micropapillary component, solid component, vascular invasion and pleural invasion were independent risk factors for lymph node metastasis of invasive lung adenocarcinoma with diameter≤3 cm (P<0.05). While age, lepidic subtype and lepidic component were independent protective factors for lymph node metastasis (P<0.05). Conclusion Clinicopathological features can help predict lymph node metastasis of lung adenocarcinoma with diameter≤3 cm.
Objective To explore the impact of microvascular invasion (MVI) on the survival prognosis of patients after radical hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma, to analyze its related risk factors and preoperative prediction methods, and to provide reference and support for the treatment of early postoperative recurrence. MethodsBy searching domestic and international medical literature databases, we screened studies related to MVI in hepatocellular carcinoma, focusing on the definition, grading, risk factors, preoperative prediction methods, and postoperative treatment strategies of MVI, and summarized the results of the existing studies. ResultsMVI was a well-established risk factor for the intrahepatic metastasis and early postoperative recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma. Currently, various methods were employed to predict MVI, including laboratory indicators, imaging genomics, and genomics. The laboratory indicators used for prediction included alpha-fetoprotein, protein induced by vitamin K absence or antagonist-Ⅱ, hepatitis B virus, tumor diameter, vascular endothelial growth factor A, and circulating tumor cells. Imaging genomics involved preoperative MRI with irregular tumor shape and intra-voxel incoherent motion diffusion-weighted imaging D value < 1.16 × 10-3 mm2/S, CT enhancement imaging features with irregular tumor margins, multiple foci, and contrast-enhanced ultrasound portal venous and delayed phase scores. Genomics included the maximum variant allele frequency of circulating tumor DNA. In cases where MVI was detected after surgery, adjuvant therapy options had gained attention, such as transcatheter arterial chemoembolization, hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy, targeted therapy, immunotherapy, radiation therapy, antiviral therapy, and local treatment combined with systemic treatment. ConclusionsThe study of MVI and its targeted treatment strategies are important for reducing the postoperative recurrence rate of hepatocellular carcinoma and improving patient survival. The preoperative prediction model and postoperative treatment plan should be optimized in the future to provide more effective treatment reference for patients.
Objective
To summarize the research progress of MRI in the assessment of rectal cancer before surgery.
Methods
Literatures about the recent studies on the research progress of MRI in the assessment of rectal cancer before surgery were reviewed according to the results searched from Pubmed, CNKI, and WanFang database.
Results
Preoperative staging, circumferential resection margin, and extramural vascular invasion were closely related to the prognosis of rectal cancer patients, MRI could provide a good assessment of preoperative staging, circumferential resection margin, and extramural vascular invasion for rectal cancer patients, but it still had some deficiencies which needed further studies.
Conclusion
Application of MRI in the assessment of preoperative staging, circumferential resection margin, and extramural vascular invasion before surgery, is conducive to the development of the most appropriate treatment options for patients with rectal cancer.
