Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Jun 8, 2016; 8(16): 685-690
Published online Jun 8, 2016. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v8.i16.685
Hepatocellular carcinoma after locoregional therapy: Magnetic resonance imaging findings in falsely negative exams
David Becker-Weidman, Jesse M Civan, Sandeep P Deshmukh, Christopher G Roth, Steven K Herrine, Laurence Parker, Donald G Mitchell
David Becker-Weidman, Sandeep P Deshmukh, Christopher G Roth, Laurence Parker, Donald G Mitchell, Department of Radiology, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA 19107, United States
Jesse M Civan, Steven K Herrine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA 19107, United States
Author contributions: Becker-Weidman D designed the study, collected the data, and drafted the manuscript; Civan JM developed the concept, collected the data and drafted the manuscript; Deshmukh SP and Roth CG interpreted MRI images and edited the manuscript; Herrine SK developed the concept and edited the manuscript; Parker L performed statistical analysis and edited the manuscript; Mitchell DG developed the concept, interpreted MRI images, and edited the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Thomas Jefferson University.
Informed consent statement: Patients were not required to give informed consent to the study because the analysis used anonymous clinical data that were obtained after each patient agreed to treatment by written consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: We have no financial relationships to disclose.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (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: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Donald G Mitchell, MD, Department of Radiology, Thomas Jefferson University, 132 S 10th St, Main Building, Room 1094, Philadelphia, PA 19107, United States. donald.mitchell@jefferson.edu
Telephone: +1-215-9554809 Fax: +1-215-9558270
Received: March 2, 2016
Peer-review started: March 2, 2016
First decision: March 22, 2016
Revised: April 7, 2016
Accepted: May 10, 2016
Article in press: May 11, 2016
Published online: June 8, 2016
Core Tip

Core tip: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is often treated with locoregional therapy such as transarterial chemoembolization as a bridge to transplantation. Detecting residual or recurrent tumor within these treated lesions is challenging and some treated lesions that do not demonstrate any magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) evidence of HCC will contain foci of viable tumor. Regular, short-term imaging surveillance is clinically important for patients being considered for liver transplantation even when prior MRIs have been negative and the possibility of a false negative MRI exam needs to be considered when managing these patients.