Evaluating treatment response following locoregional therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma: A review of the available serological and radiological tools for assessment

Daniel R A Cox; William Chung; Josephine Grace; Darren Wong; Numan Kutaiba; Dinesh Ranatunga; Richard Khor; Marcos V Perini; Michael Fink; Robert Jones; Mark Goodwin; Alex Dobrovic; Adam Testro; Vijayaragavan Muralidharan

doi:10.1002/jgh3.12879

Evaluating treatment response following locoregional therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma: A review of the available serological and radiological tools for assessment

JGH Open. 2023 Apr 3;7(4):249-260. doi: 10.1002/jgh3.12879. eCollection 2023 Apr.

Authors

Daniel R A Cox^{1

2}, William Chung^{3

4}, Josephine Grace^{3

4}, Darren Wong^{3

4}, Numan Kutaiba⁵, Dinesh Ranatunga⁵, Richard Khor^{6

7

8}, Marcos V Perini^{1

2}, Michael Fink^{1

2}, Robert Jones^{1

2

4}, Mark Goodwin⁵, Alex Dobrovic¹, Adam Testro^{3

4}, Vijayaragavan Muralidharan^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Surgery (Austin Precinct) The University of Melbourne Melbourne Victoria Australia.
² Hepatopancreatobiliary and Liver Transplant Surgery Unit Austin Health Melbourne Victoria Australia.
³ Department of Medicine (Austin Precinct) The University of Melbourne Melbourne Victoria Australia.
⁴ Liver Transplant Unit, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Austin Health Melbourne Victoria Australia.
⁵ Department of Radiology Austin Health Melbourne Victoria Australia.
⁶ Department of Radiation Oncology Austin Health Melbourne Victoria Australia.
⁷ School of Molecular Sciences, La Trobe University Melbourne Victoria Australia.
⁸ Department of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences Monash University Melbourne Victoria Australia.

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an aggressive primary malignancy of the liver and is the third most common cause of cancer-related global mortality. There has been a steady increase in treatment options for HCC in recent years, including innovations in both curative and non-curative therapies. These advances have brought new challenges and necessary improvements in strategies of disease monitoring, to allow early detection of HCC recurrence. Current serological and radiological strategies for post-treatment monitoring and prognostication and their limitations will be discussed and evaluated in this review.

Keywords: alpha‐fetoprotein; des‐γ‐carboxyprothrombin; hepatocellular carcinoma; lens culinaris agglutinin‐A‐reactive α‐fetoprotein; loco‐regional therapy; microwave ablation; protein induced by vitamin K absence or antagonist‐II; radiofrequency ablation; trans‐arterial chemo‐embolization; α‐fetoprotein.

Publication types

Review