Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Aug 21, 2022; 28(31): 4399-4416
Published online Aug 21, 2022. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v28.i31.4399
Radiomics and nomogram of magnetic resonance imaging for preoperative prediction of microvascular invasion in small hepatocellular carcinoma
Yi-Di Chen, Ling Zhang, Zhi-Peng Zhou, Bin Lin, Zi-Jian Jiang, Cheng Tang, Yi-Wu Dang, Yu-Wei Xia, Bin Song, Li-Ling Long
Yi-Di Chen, Ling Zhang, Zi-Jian Jiang, Cheng Tang, Li-Ling Long, Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Zhi-Peng Zhou, Bin Lin, Department of Radiology, Affiliated Hospital of Guilin Medical University, Guilin 541001, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Yi-Wu Dang, Department of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 5350021, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Yu-Wei Xia, Department of Technology, Huiying Medical Technology (Beijing), Beijing 100192, China
Bin Song, Department of Radiology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China
Li-Ling Long, Key Laboratory of Early Prevention and Treatment for Regional High Frequency Tumor, Ministry of Education, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Li-Ling Long, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Immunology and Metabolism for Liver Diseases, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Author contributions: Chen YD and Zhang L contributed equally to this work; Chen YD and Long LL was the guarantor and designed the study; Zhang L, Lin B, Jiang ZJ, Tang C, Dang YW, and Xia YW participated in the acquisition, analysis, interpretation of the data, and drafted the initial manuscript; Zhou ZP and Song B revised the article critically for important intellectual content.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 82060310; and Science and Technology Support Program of Sichuan Province, No. 2022YFS0071.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University Ethical Review Committee, No. 2019 KY-E-65.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest to report.
Data sharing statement: The data that support the findings of this study are available in the Baidu Netdisk or our AI Scientific Research Platform (https://mics.radcloud.cn/). Further enquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Li-Ling Long, MD, Chairman, Chief Doctor, Professor, Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, No. 6 Shuangyong Road, Nanning 530021, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. cjr.longliling@vip.163.com
Received: December 14, 2021
Peer-review started: December 14, 2021
First decision: January 27, 2022
Revised: February 5, 2022
Accepted: July 24, 2022
Article in press: July 24, 2022
Published online: August 21, 2022
Processing time: 245 Days and 4.5 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Microvascular invasion (MVI) accounts for approximately 20% of small hepatocellular carcinoma (sHCC) (≤ 3.0 cm) and is a poor independent prognostic factor for progression-free survival and overall survival. However, no studies have been published on the preoperative prediction of the MVI of sHCC. This multi-center study was developed and validated radiomics scores and nomogram of gadoxetic acid-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (EOB-MRI) for the preoperative prediction of MVI in sHCC. The results demonstrated that AFP and conventional EOB-MRI features have poor diagnostic accuracy for MVI in patients with sHCC. The radiomics scores of HBP and diffusion-weighted imaging can improve the ability to predict MVI. As a noninvasive preoperative prediction method, the radiomics nomogram presented in this study showed a favorable predictive accuracy in evaluating MVI of sHCC, which may help reassess the clinical therapeutic regimen for patients with sHCC.