Abstract
Objective
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System (LI-RADS) in patients with both chronic liver disease and a history of extrahepatic malignancy.
Materials and methods
This retrospective study included 59 hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) and 45 metastases pathologically confirmed between 2008 and 2017 in 104 patients with chronic liver disease (cirrhosis or chronic hepatitis B) and a history of extrahepatic malignancy. Two radiologists blinded to the final diagnosis independently reviewed MRI (95 patients) or CT (9 patients) images, and their consensus data were used to calculate the diagnostic performance of LI-RADS categories. Serum tumor markers, tumor multiplicity, and suspected metastatic lymph nodes were also evaluated.
Results
The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of LR-5 for diagnosing HCC were 69% (95% confidence intervals [CI] 56–81), 98% (95% CI 88–99), and 82% (95% CI 73–89), respectively, and those of LR-M for diagnosing metastasis were 89% (95% CI 76–96), 88% (95% CI 77–95), and 88% (95% CI 81–94), respectively. Elevation of serum carcinoembryonic antigen (P = 0.01) or carbohydrate antigen 19–9 levels (P = 0.02) and tumor multiplicity (P = 0.004) were more frequently observed in metastasis than in HCC. Three of four metastases categorized as LR-4 or LR-5 were smaller than 2 cm.
Conclusions
The LI-RADS provides high specificity (98%) for differentiating HCC from metastases in patients with both chronic liver disease and a history of extrahepatic malignancy.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Petrick JL, Braunlin M, Laversanne M, Valery PC, Bray F, McGlynn KA. International trends in liver cancer incidence, overall and by histologic subtype, 1978-2007. Int J Cancer 2016;139:1534-1545
Akinyemiju T, Abera S, Ahmed M, Alam N, Alemayohu MA, Allen C, et al. The Burden of Primary Liver Cancer and Underlying Etiologies From 1990 to 2015 at the Global, Regional, and National Level: Results From the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015. JAMA Oncol 2017;3:1683-1691
An C, Choi YA, Choi D, Paik YH, Ahn SH, Kim MJ, et al. Growth rate of early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with chronic liver disease. Clin Mol Hepatol 2015;21:279-286
Kudo M, Trevisani F, Abou-Alfa GK, Rimassa L. Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Therapeutic Guidelines and Medical Treatment. Liver Cancer 2016;6:16-26
Korean Liver Cancer Study G, National Cancer Center K. 2014 Korean Liver Cancer Study Group-National Cancer Center Korea practice guideline for the management of hepatocellular carcinoma. Korean J Radiol 2015;16:465-522
Heimbach JK, Kulik LM, Finn RS, Sirlin CB, Abecassis MM, Roberts LR, et al. AASLD guidelines for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma. Hepatology 2018;67:358-380
EASL Clinical Practice Guidelines: Management of hepatocellular carcinoma. J Hepatol 2018;69:182-236
American College of Radiology. Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System version 2018. https://www.acr.org/Clinical-Resources/Reporting-and-Data-Systems/LI-RADS. Accessed 25 Aug 2018
van der Pol CB, Lim CS, Sirlin CB, McGrath TA, Salameh JP, Bashir MR, et al. Accuracy of the Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System in Computed Tomography and Magnetic Resonance Image Analysis of Hepatocellular Carcinoma or Overall Malignancy-A Systematic Review. Gastroenterology 2019;156:976-986
Kim YY, Kim MJ, Kim EH, Roh YH, An C. Hepatocellular Carcinoma versus Other Hepatic Malignancy in Cirrhosis: Performance of LI-RADS Version 2018. Radiology 2019;291:72-80
Chernyak V, Fowler KJ, Kamaya A, Kielar AZ, Elsayes KM, Bashir MR, et al. Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System (LI-RADS) Version 2018: Imaging of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in At-Risk Patients. Radiology 2018;289:816-830
Marrero JA, Kulik LM, Sirlin CB, Zhu AX, Finn RS, Abecassis MM, et al. Diagnosis, Staging, and Management of Hepatocellular Carcinoma: 2018 Practice Guidance by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. Hepatology 2018;68:723-750
Danet IM, Semelka RC, Leonardou P, Braga L, Vaidean G, Woosley JT, et al. Spectrum of MRI appearances of untreated metastases of the liver. AJR Am J Roentgenol 2003;181:809-817
Namasivayam S, Martin DR, Saini S. Imaging of liver metastases: MRI. Cancer Imaging 2007;7:2-9
Rhee H, An C, Kim HY, Yoo JE, Park YN, Kim MJ. Hepatocellular Carcinoma with Irregular Rim-Like Arterial Phase Hyperenhancement: More Aggressive Pathologic Features. Liver Cancer 2019;8:24-40
Fraum TJ, Tsai R, Rohe E, Ludwig DR, Salter A, Nalbantoglu I, et al. Differentiation of Hepatocellular Carcinoma from Other Hepatic Malignancies in Patients at Risk: Diagnostic Performance of the Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System Version 2014. Radiology 2018;286:158-172
Choi SH, Lee SS, Kim SY, Park SH, Park SH, Kim KM, et al. Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma in Patients with Cirrhosis: Differentiation from Hepatocellular Carcinoma by Using Gadoxetic Acid-enhanced MR Imaging and Dynamic CT. Radiology 2017;282:771-781
Potretzke TA, Tan BR, Doyle MB, Brunt EM, Heiken JP, Fowler KJ. Imaging Features of Biphenotypic Primary Liver Carcinoma (Hepatocholangiocarcinoma) and the Potential to Mimic Hepatocellular Carcinoma: LI-RADS Analysis of CT and MRI Features in 61 Cases. AJR Am J Roentgenol 2016;207:25-31
Kim MJ, Lee S, An C. Problematic lesions in cirrhotic liver mimicking hepatocellular carcinoma. Eur Radiol 2019;29:5101-5110
Kim YY, An C, Kim S, Kim MJ. Diagnostic accuracy of prospective application of the Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System (LI-RADS) in gadoxetate-enhanced MRI. Eur Radiol 2018;28:2038-2046
Reynolds AR, Furlan A, Fetzer DT, Sasatomi E, Borhani AA, Heller MT, et al. Infiltrative hepatocellular carcinoma: what radiologists need to know. Radiographics 2015;35:371-386
Lee HS, Kim MJ, An C. How to utilize LR-M features of the LI-RADS to improve the diagnosis of combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma on gadoxetate-enhanced MRI? Eur Radiol 2019;29:2408-2416
Hong CW, Park CC, Mamidipalli A, Hooker JC, Fazeli Dehkordy S, Igarashi S, et al. Longitudinal evolution of CT and MRI LI-RADS v2014 category 1, 2, 3, and 4 observations. Eur Radiol 2019;29:5073-5081
Choi SH, Byun JH, Kim SY, Lee SJ, Won HJ, Shin YM, et al. Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System v2014 With Gadoxetate Disodium-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Validation of LI-RADS Category 4 and 5 Criteria. Invest Radiol 2016;51:483-490
Ren AH, Zhao PF, Yang DW, Du JB, Wang ZC, Yang ZH. Diagnostic performance of MR for hepatocellular carcinoma based on LI-RADS v2018, compared with v2017. J Magn Reson Imaging 2019;50:746-755
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Kyunghwa Han, PhD, from the Department of Radiology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, for her assistance in statistical analysis.
Funding
None.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
All the authors declared that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cho, M.J., An, C., Aljoqiman, K.S. et al. Diagnostic performance of Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System in patients at risk of both hepatocellular carcinoma and metastasis. Abdom Radiol 45, 3789–3799 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-020-02581-9
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-020-02581-9