Impact of microvascular invasion risk on tumor progression of hepatocellular carcinoma after conventional transarterial chemoembolization.

Objective: To assess tumor progression in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) without macrovascular invasion who underwent treatment with conventional transarterial chemoembolization (cTACE) based on microvascular invasion (MVI) risk within 2 years.

Methods: This retrospective investigation comprised adult patients with HCC who had either liver resection or cTACE as their first treatment from January 2016 to December 2021. A predictive model for MVI was developed and validated using preoperative clinical and MRI data from patients with HCC treated with liver resection. The MVI predictive model was applied to patients with HCC receiving cTACE, and differences in tumor progression between the MVI high- and low-risk groups were examined throughout 2 years.

Results: The MVI prediction model incorporated nonsmooth margin, intratumoral artery, incomplete or absent tumor capsule, and tumor DWI/T2WI mismatch. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for the prediction model, in the training cohort, was determined to be 0.904 (95% CI, 0.862-0.946), while in the validation cohort, it was 0.888 (0.782-0.994). Among patients with HCC undergoing cTACE, those classified as high risk for MVI possessed a lower rate of achieving a complete response after the first tumor therapy and a higher risk of tumor progression within 2 years.

Conclusions: The MVI prediction model developed in this study demonstrates a considerable degree of accuracy. Patients at high risk for MVI who underwent cTACE treatment exhibited a higher risk of tumor progression within 2 years.