Prediction of microvascular invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma by pre-operative CT imaging

Objective: The aim of this study was to diagnose microvascular invasion in patients with solitary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) from pre-operative CT imaging. Methods: 102 patients with solitary HCC who underwent curative hepatectomy were retrospectively included in our study. The pre-operative 3-phase CT imaging and laboratory data for the 102 patients were reviewed. Tumour size, tumour margin, peritumoral enhancement and alpha-fetoprotein level were assessed. Surgical pathology was reviewed; tumour differentiation, liver fibrosis score and microvascular invasion were recorded. Results: The histopathological results revealed that 50 HCCs were positive and the other 52 were negative for microvascular invasion. Univariate analysis revealed that tumour size (p=0.036), higher Edmondson-Steiner grade (p=0.047) and non-smooth tumour margin (p<0.001) showed statistically significant associations with microvascular invasion. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that non-smooth tumour margin had a statistically significant association with microvascular invasion only (p<0.001). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of the non-smooth tumour margin in the prediction of microvascular invasion were 66%, 86.5%, 82.5% and 72.6%, respectively. Conclusion: Non-smooth tumour margin in pre-operative CT had a statistically significant association with microvascular invasion. More aggressive treatment should be considered in HCC patients with suspected positive microvascular invasion.