This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Biomarker predicts microvascular invasion in HCC

Improving the usefulness of liver transplants, a biomarker correctly predicted microvascular invasion in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, according to recent data.

Researchers discovered the biomarker, called radiogenomic venous invasion, by comparing contrast CT images with the corresponding gene expression profile of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

“These data show that radiogenomic venous invasion is a robust predictor of microvascular invasion and may have broad clinical applicability,” Michael D. Kuo, MD, of the department of radiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and colleagues wrote.

Kuo and colleagues looked for the presence of the radiogenomic venous invasion (RVI) biomarker in contrast CT images of 157 patients with HCC who underwent resection (n = 72) or liver transplantation (n = 85) between 2000 and 2009. The researchers determined whether RVI could predict microvascular invasion (MVI).

In predicting MVI, the investigators found that RVI had a diagnostic accuracy of 89%, a sensitivity of 76%, and a specificity of 94%. In addition, they found that a positive RVI score was associated with lower overall survival (48 months vs. more than 147 months; P < .001) and lower recurrence-free survival at 3 years (27% vs. 62%; P = .001) compared with negative RVI score.

“Currently, the diagnosis of MVI can only reliably be made by histology of explanted tissue when its clinical utility is marginal,” Kuo and colleagues wrote. “A noninvasive test capable of accurately identifying MVI preoperatively would be of great benefit in better stratifying HCC patients for surgical management.

“RVI predicts MVI with a high degree of accuracy and risk stratifies [overall survival] and [recurrence-free survival] in a similar manner to MVI.” – by Will Offit

Disclosure: Kuo reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the full study for a list of all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.