Comparing Survival Outcomes of Patients With LI‐RADS‐M Hepatocellular Carcinomas and Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinomas

Abstract

Background There is a sparsity of data evaluating outcomes of patients with Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System (LI‐RADS) (LR)‐M lesions. Purpose To compare overall survival (OS) and progression free survival (PFS) between hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) meeting LR‐M criteria and to evaluate factors associated with prognosis. Study Type Retrospective. Subjects Patients at risk for HCC with at least one LR‐M lesion with histologic diagnosis, from 8 academic centers, yielding 120 patients with 120 LR‐M lesions (84 men [mean age 62 years] and 36 women [mean age 66 years]). Field Strength/Sequence A 1.5 and 3.0 T/3D T1‐weighted gradient echo, T2‐weighted fast spin‐echo. Assessment The imaging categorization of each lesion as LR‐M was made clinically by a single radiologist at each site and patient outcome measures were collected. Statistical Tests OS, PFS, and potential independent predictors were evaluated by Kaplan–Meier method, log‐rank test, and Cox proportional hazard model. A P value of <0.05 was considered significant. Results A total of 120 patients with 120 LR‐M lesions were included; on histology 65 were HCC and 55 were iCCA. There was similar median OS for patients with LR‐M HCC compared to patients with iCCA (738 days vs. 769 days, P = 0.576). There were no significant differences between patients with HCC and iCCA in terms of sex (47:18 vs. 37:18, P = 0.549), age (63.0 ± 8.4 vs. 63.4 ± 7.8, P = 0.847), etiology of liver disease (P = 0.202), presence of cirrhosis (100% vs. 100%, P = 1.000), tumor size (4.73 ± 3.28 vs. 4.75 ± 2.58, P = 0.980), method of lesion histologic diagnosis (P = 0.646), and proportion of patients who underwent locoregional therapy (60.0% vs. 38.2%, P = 0.100) or surgery (134.8 ± 165.5 vs. 142.5 ± 205.6, P = 0.913). Using multivariable analysis, nonsurgical compared to surgical management (HR, 4.58), larger tumor size (HR, 1.19), and higher MELD score (HR, 1.12) were independently associated with worse OS. Data Conclusion There was similar OS in patients with LR‐M HCC and LR‐M iCCA, suggesting that LR‐M imaging features may more closely reflect patient outcomes than histology. Evidence Level 3 Technical Efficacy Stage 5

Editorial for “Comparing Survival Outcomes of Patients With LI‐RADS‐M Hepatocellular Carcinomas and Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinomas”

“…In this issue of JMRI , Kierans et al reported a comparison between clinical outcomes of HCC and iCCA with' LR‐M' features 5 . The hypothesis is that primary liver cancers with similar imaging features may show a similar clinical outcome.…”

“…In this issue of JMRI, Kierans et al reported a comparison between clinical outcomes of HCC and iCCA with' LR-M' features. 5 The hypothesis is that primary liver cancers with similar imaging features may show a similar clinical outcome. Authors retrospectively collected 120 patients with histologically confirmed either HCC (n = 65) and iCCA (n = 55) from eight centers.…”