Evaluating histologic differentiation of hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma using intravoxel incoherent motion and AFP levels alone and in combination

PURPOSE

To evaluate histologic differentiation of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) using apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM)-derived metrics and to compare findings with alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels alone and in combination.

MATERIALS AND METHOD

One hundred and six chronic HBV-related HCC patients who underwent IVIM diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging with eleven b values were enrolled. Mean ADC, diffusion coefficient (D), pseudodiffusion coefficient (D*), and perfusion fraction (f) values were determined for all detected lesions. The metrics and AFP levels of different histologically differentiated groups were compared. Spearman's rank correlation was used to assess the statistical dependence among the histologically differentiated HCCs. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to evaluate diagnostic performance of these metrics and AFP levels alone and in combination.

RESULTS

ADC, D, and f values and AFP levels were significantly different among well-, moderately, and poorly differentiated HCCs. The four metrics were significantly correlated with histologic differentiation. The area under the ROC curve (AUC-ROC) of ADC, D, f, and AFP for diagnosing well-differentiated HCCs was 0.903, 0.84, 0.782, and 0.806, respectively, and the AUC-ROC of above metrics for diagnosing poorly differentiated HCCs was 0.787, 0.726, 0.624, and 0.633, respectively. The combination of ADC and AFP provided an AUC-ROC of 0.945 for well-differentiated HCC. However, this did not provide better performance for diagnosing poorly differentiated HCC.

CONCLUSION

ADC, IVIM metrics, and AFP levels may be useful for evaluating histologic differentiation of HBV-related HCCs, and the combination of ADC and AFP provides better diagnostic performance for well-differentiated HCC.

Association of common variants on chromosome 8q24 with gastric cancer in Venezuelan patients

Gastric cancer remains one of the leading causes of death in the world, being Central and South America among the regions showing the highest incidence and mortality rates worldwide. Although several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) identified in the chromosomal region 8q24 by genome-wide association studies have been related with the risk of different kinds of cancers, their role in the susceptibility of gastric cancer in Latin American populations has not been evaluated yet. Hereby, we performed a case-control study to explore the associations between three SNPs at 8q24 and gastric cancer risk in Venezuelan patients. We analyzed rs1447295, rs4733616 and rs6983267 SNPs in 122 paraffin-embedded tumor samples from archival bank and 129 samples with chronic gastritis (obtained by upper endoscopy during the study) from the Central Hospital of Barquisimeto (Lara, Venezuela). Genotypes were determined by PCR-RFLP reactions designed in this study for efficient genotyping of formalin-fixed/paraffin-embedded tissues. No significant differences in genotype frequencies between case and control groups were found. However, carriers of the homozygous TT genotype of SNP rs4733616 had an increased risk of developing poorly differentiated gastric cancer according to the codominant (OR=3.59, P=0.035) and the recessive models (OR=4.32, P=0.014, best-fitting model of inheritance), adjusted by age and gender. Our study suggests that the SNP rs4733616 is associated with susceptibility to poorly differentiated gastric cancer in Venezuelans. Additional studies are needed to further interrogate the prognostic value of the rs4733616 marker in this high-risk population for gastric cancer.

Predicting histologic differentiation of solitary hepatocellular carcinoma up to 5 cm on gadoxetate disodium-enhanced MRI

BACKGROUND

To establish a preoperative score based on gadoxetate disodium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (EOB-MRI) and clinical indicators for predicting histologic differentiation of solitary HCC up to 5 cm.

METHODS

From July 2015 to January 2022, consecutive patients with surgically proven solitary HCC measuring ≤ 5 cm at preoperative EOB-MRI were retrospectively enrolled. All MR images were independently evaluated by two radiologists who were blinded to all clinical and pathologic information. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to identify significant clinicoradiological features associated with poorly differentiated (PD) HCC, which were then incorporated into the predictive score. The predictive score was validated in an independent validation set by area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy.

RESULTS

A total of 182 patients were included, 42 (23%) with PD HCC. According to the multivariate analysis, marked hepatobiliary phase hypointensity (odds ratio [OR], 9.98), LR-M category (OR, 5.60), and serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) level > 400 ng/mL (OR, 3.58) were incorporated into the predictive model; the predictive score achieved an AUC of 0.802 and 0.830 on the training and validation sets, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of the predictive score were 66.7%, 85.7%, and 81.3%, respectively, on the training set and 66.7%, 81.0%, and 77.8%, respectively, on the validation set.

CONCLUSION

The proposed score integrating two EOB-MRI features and AFP level can accurately predict PD HCC in the preoperative setting.