The progress and advance on diffusion-weighted imaging in locoregional interventional treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma / 中华肝胆外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors in China. Unfortunately, most of HCC patients were diagnosed at the intermediate or advanced stage, losing the chance to receive the surgical intervention. Locoregional interventional treatment is one of the major therapeutic options for inoperable HCC treatment and prolongs the survival of the patients. Evaluation of the efficacy of the treatment is the important to determine the further therapy strategies. Currently, the evaluation of patients’ response is mainly based on CT and MR anatomic morphological images, but characteristics of tumor biology changes can be observed earlier than the morphological changes. In the recent years, with the development of diffusion weighted imaging (DWI), its value in clinical application has been continuously explored, and it has been increasingly used for quantitative evaluation the diffusion of water molecular and microcirculation perfusion of blood flow in tumor tissue, with some progress in evaluating the tumor response. This paper mainly reviewed the recent research findings of DWI on locoregional interventional treatment for HCC, thereby providing guidance on clinical practice.