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MRI-based radiomics signature: a potential imaging biomarker for prediction of microvascular invasion in combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma

  • Hepatobiliary
  • Published:
Abdominal Radiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

To investigate the potential of radiomics analysis of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) in preoperatively predicting microvascular invasion (MVI) in patients with combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma (cHCC-CC) before surgery.

Methods

A cohort of 91 patients with histologically confirmed cHCC-CC who underwent preoperative liver DCE-MRI were enrolled and divided into a training cohort (27 MVI-positive and 37 MVI-negative) and a validation cohort (11 MVI-positive and 16 MVI-negative). Clinical characteristics and MR features of the patients were evaluated. Radiomics features were extracted from DCE-MRI, and a radiomics signature was built using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) algorithm in the training cohort. Prediction performance of the developed radiomics signature was evaluated by utilizing the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis.

Results

Larger tumor size and higher Radscore were associated with the presence of MVI in the training cohort (p = 0.026 and < 0.001, respectively), and theses findings were also confirmed in the validation cohort (p = 0.040 and 0.001, respectively). The developed radiomics signature, composed of 4 stable radiomics features, showed high prediction performance in both the training cohort (AUC = 0.866, 95% CI 0.757–0.938, p < 0.001) and validation cohort (AUC = 0.841, 95% CI 0.650–0.952, p < 0.001).

Conclusions

The radiomics signature developed from DCE-MRI can be a reliable imaging biomarker to preoperatively predict MVI in cHCC-CC.

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Abbreviations

AFP:

Alpha fetoprotein

AUC:

Area under curve

CA19-9:

Cancer antigen19-9

CEA:

Carcinoembryonic antigen

cHCC-CC:

Combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma

HCC:

Hepatocellular carcinoma

ICC:

Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma

IMCC:

Mass-forming intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma

LASSO:

Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator

MRI:

Magnetic resonance imaging

MVI:

Microvascular invasion

ROC:

Receiver operating characteristic curve

AP:

Arterial phase

PP:

Portal phase

DP:

Delayed phase

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Funding

This study was supported by Grants from the Shanghai 2022 "Science and Technology Innovation Action Plan" medical innovation research special project (Grant Number 22Y11910900).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Guofeng Zhou and Yang Zhou have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China

    Guofeng Zhou & Pengju Xu

  2. Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, No 300, Guangzhou Road, Nanjing, 210029, Jiangsu Province, China

    Yang Zhou, Xun Xu, Jiulou Zhang & Feipeng Zhu

  3. Department of Pathology, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China

    Chen Xu

  4. Department of Radiology, Zhongshan Hospital, Shanghai Institute of Medical Imaging, Fudan University, No. 180 Fenglin Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai, 200032, China

    Pengju Xu

Authors
  1. Guofeng Zhou
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  4. Jiulou Zhang
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Correspondence to Pengju Xu or Feipeng Zhu.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This study does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors. For this type of study formal consent is not required.

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The institutional review board approved this study and waived informed consent because of retrospective study.

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Zhou, G., Zhou, Y., Xu, X. et al. MRI-based radiomics signature: a potential imaging biomarker for prediction of microvascular invasion in combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma. Abdom Radiol 49, 49–59 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-023-04049-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-023-04049-y

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