Abstract:
Objective To explore the application value of the change ratio of the apparent diffusion coefficient(ΔADC) in the therapeutic evaluation of hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) treated by single transcatheter arterial chemoembolization(TACE).
Methods Forty-eight patients diagnosed with advanced HCC underwent diffusion-weighted imaging, dynamic enhanced MRI, and CT before and one month after TACE. The follow-up data for all selected patients were accumulated, and the disease progression in the follow-up was considered the end point. The progression-free survival of every patient was recorded after TACE. The responses one month after TACE were assessed via digital subtraction angiography, ΔADC, MRI, and CT, of which DSA was considered the "gold standard." The groups were divided into three groups: good, middle, and bad. The PFS curves were then plotted. The consistency of the other three evaluation methods with the "gold standard" was evaluated by kappa test.
Results Fifty-six lesions were found in 48 patients according to the DSA results, where 30, 16, and 10 lesions belonged to the good, middle, and bad groups, respectively. The survival curves among the 3 groups were statistically significant(χ2=29.89, P < 0.01), and the median PFSs of the good, middle, and bad groups were 7.5, 4.0, and 1.1 months, respectively. The ΔADC results indicated that the ADC values generally increased after a single TACE; the ΔADC and survival curves among the 3 groups were also statistically significant(χ2=26.57, P < 0.01);the median PFSs for the good, middle, and bad groups were 7.5, 4.6, and 1.8 months, respectively. The kappa test shows that the ΔADC was perfectly consistent with the "gold standard"(kappa=0.542, P < 0.01), but the MRI and CT were poorly consistent with the "gold standard"(Kappa=0.328, 0.260, P < 0.05). Only the MRI was statistically significant(χ2=30.623, P < 0.01) in the survival curve.
Conclusion The ΔADC can evaluate the efficacy of TACE timely and objectively, and the ΔADC is clinically significant in guiding the subsequent treatment after a single TACE.