Key clinical point: Having undergone drug-eluting bead transarterial chemoembolization (DEB-TACE), treatment response and disease-free survival (DFS) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) could be predicted by MRI signal intensity in the hepatobiliary phase (HBP) and serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels, respectively.
Main finding: The only significant predictive factors of noncomplete response and short DFS were signal intensity heterogeneity in the HBP (adjusted odds ratio, 4.807; P = .048) and elevated serum AFP levels (≥30 ng/mL; adjusted hazard ratio, 2.916; P = .040), respectively.
Study details: This was a preliminary single-center retrospective study including 55 treatment-naive patients who underwent DEB-TACE for HCC.
Disclosures: The study was sponsored by the Bio & Medical Technology Development Program of the National Research Foundation funded by the Korean government. The authors reported no conflict of interests.
Source: Lee JY et al. Sci Rep. 2021 Dec 15. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-01839-6 .