Comparison of local recurrence in transcatheter arterial chemoembolization of hepatocellular carcinoma with or without accumulation of iodized oil beyond corona enhancement area: Short-term results

Background Local tumor recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) often occurs in blood drainage areas. Corona enhancement is determined by computed tomography during hepatic arteriography (CTHA) and is considered to represent the blood drainage area. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between embolization of corona enhancement area and local tumor recurrence of patients with HCC who underwent transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE). Patients and methods The study retrospectively selected 53 patients with 60 HCC nodules that showed corona enhancement area on late-phase CTHA and showed homogenous accumulation of iodized oil throughout the nodule on non-contrast-enhanced CT performed immediately after TACE. We divided the nodules into two groups, according to whether the accumulation of iodized oil covered the entire corona enhancement area (group A) or not (group B). Local tumor recurrence was compared between the two groups. Results The cumulative local tumor recurrence rates for group A (n = 36) were 2.8%, 2.8%, 8.3% at 3, 6, and 12 months, respectively, whereas the recurrence rates for group B (n = 24) were 20.8%, 45.8%, 75% at 3, 6, and 12 months, respectively. The cumulative local tumor recurrence rates for group A were significantly lower than those for group B (hazard ratio, 0.079; 95% confidence interval, 0.026–0.24; p < 0.001). Conclusions The results of the study suggest that the corona enhancement area may be an accurate safety margin in TACE which should be performed until the embolic area covers the entire corona enhancement area.

Detectability of Target Lesion During CT-Guided Tumor Ablations: Impact on Ablation Outcome

Purpose Small hepatic malignancies scheduled for CT-guided percutaneous ablation may have been identified in the hepatobiliary phase of liver MRI or in a specific phase of multi-phase CT but may be occult on unenhanced CT used to guide the ablation. We investigated whether the detectability of the target lesion would impact the efficacy of CT-guided hepatic tumor ablations. Materials and Methods We included 69 patients with 99 malignant liver lesions (25 primary, 44 metastases) who underwent IRE (n = 35), RFA (n = 41), or MWA (n = 23) between 01/2015 and 06/2018. All procedures were performed under CT guidance. Lesions not detectable on CT (NDL) were targeted through identification of anatomical landmarks on preinterventional contrast-enhanced CT or MRI. Rates of incomplete ablation, size of ablation zone, local tumor recurrence, intrahepatic progression-free survival (ihPFS), and adverse event rates were compared for detectable lesions (DL) vs. NDL. Results 40 lesions were NDL, and 59 lesions were DL on unenhanced CT. The mean follow-up was 16.2 months (14.8 for DL and 18.2 for NDL). The mean diameter of NDL and DL was similar (12.9 mm vs. 14.9 mm). The mean ablation zone size was similar (37.1 mm vs. 38.8 mm). Incomplete ablation did not differ between NDL vs. DL (5.0 % [2/40; 0.6–16.9 %] vs. 3.4 % [2/59; 0.4–11.7 %]), nor did local tumor recurrence (15.4 % [6/39; 5.7 %–30.5 %] vs. 16.9 % [10/59; 8.4–29.0 %]), or median ihPFS (15.5 months vs. 14.3 months). Conclusion Target lesion detectability on interventional CT does not have a significant impact on outcome after percutaneous liver ablation when anatomical landmarks are used to guide needle placement. Key Points: Citation Format

Recent Advances in Local Thermal Ablation Therapy for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Image-guided local thermal ablation (LTA) plays an important role in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), especially in patients with HCC who are not suitable for hepatectomy. Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and microwave ablation (MWA) are the most widely used LTA clinically. Radiofrequency ablation can achieve the best result; that is, a similar therapeutic effect as hepatectomy if the tumor ≤3 cm, while MWA can effectively ablate tumors ≤5 cm. Local thermal ablation has an advantage over liver resection in terms of minimally invasive surgery and can achieve a comparable prognosis and efficacy to liver resection. For borderline liver function, selecting LTA as the first-line therapy may bring more benefits to patients with cirrhosis background. In addition, a combination of multiple therapies for HCC is a good choice, such as LTA combined with transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE), which can achieve a better prognosis than single therapy for larger tumors. For patients who are awaiting liver transplantation, LTA is a good choice. The main problem of LTA needed to be solved is to prevent the local tumor recurrence after ablation in patients with HCC.

Imaging surveillance for the detection of ipsilateral local tumor recurrence in patients who underwent oncoplastic breast-conserving surgery with acellular dermal matrix: abbreviated MRI versus conventional mammography and ultrasonography

Background To evaluate the usefulness of surveillance-abbreviated magnetic resonance imaging (AB-MRI) for the detection of ipsilateral local tumor recurrence (LTR) in patients who underwent oncoplastic breast-conserving surgery (BCS) with acellular dermal matrix (ADM) by comparing its diagnostic performance with that of mammography (MG) and ultrasonography (US). Methods The postoperative MG, US, and AB-MRI findings of the ipsilateral breast and pathological results of 324 patients who underwent oncoplastic BCS using ADM were reviewed. The cancer detection rate (CDR), sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) for biopsy, accuracy, and area under the curve (AUC) for each imaging modality were calculated. Results A total of 8 ipsilateral LTRs were diagnosed, and most cancers (87.5%) were stage 0 or 1 (median size of invasive cancer, 1.44 cm; range, 0.7–2 cm). The CDRs of MG, US, MG + US, and AB-MRI were 0.009, 0.012, 0.015, and 0.025 per woman, respectively. Three cancers were detectable on only AB-MRI, and the additional CDR of AB-MRI was 0.010. The sensitivity and specificity of MG, US, MG + US, and AB-MRI were 37.5%, 50%, 62.5%, and 100% and 99.7%, 98.4%, 98.1%, and 97.8%, respectively. The PPVs for biopsy were 75%, 44.4%, 45.5%, and 53.3%, respectively. The AUC was significantly higher for AB-MRI (0.989) than for MG alone (0.686, P = 0.0009), US alone (0.742, P = 0.009), and MG + US (0.803, P = 0.04). A total of 66.7% of cancers visible on only AB-MRI were located at the deep posterior portion of the excision cavity, which might have been missed with MG or MG + US due to masking by the ADM filler. Conclusion AB-MRI can improve the detection of ipsilateral LTR despite postoperative changes caused by ADM fillers compared to conventional MG and US. Patients who undergo BCS with ADM can be candidates for AB-MRI surveillance considering improved cancer detection and high sensitivity.

Decoded: A Case Report on Dedifferentiated Liposarcoma on the Gluteal Area

Dedifferentiated liposarcoma is a soft tissue sarcoma of adipocytic lineage. Histopathology and immunohistochemistry are essential for diagnosis. A 51-year-old Filipino woman presented with a rapidly enlarging left gluteal tumor. Histopathology revealed a multilobulated tumor having prominent myxoid stroma with numerous stellate-shaped, atypical cells bearing atypical mitotic figures. Other lobules were composed of sheets of pleomorphic cells, with atypical mitotic figures. The tumor stained positively with alcian blue, vimentin, MDM2 and p16 stains. Other immunohistochemical (IHC) studies done (pancytokeratin, CK7, CK 20, CD 34, CEA, desmin, EMA, SMA, S100) showed negative results. After a 2 cm wide excision of the sarcoma, patient was free from local tumor recurrence for 2 months, after which she was lost to follow-up. We report this case and a brief review of the current literature on dedifferentiated liposarcoma.

Association of cytoplasmic HMGB1 (cHMGB1) expression with local tumor recurrence in triple-negative breast cancer.

e12595 Background: Breast cancer is one of the most frequent neoplasms worldwide, contributing to women's morbimortality. Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a highly aggressive subtype of cancer marked by negative estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors, and lack of the human epidermal growth factor 2 (C-erbB2, HER2/neu) gene overexpression. The high mobility group box-1 (HMGB1) is a factor that regulates malignant tumorigenesis, proliferation, and metastasis. Aim: Here, the HMGB1 expression was investigated as a prognostic factor for TNBC. Methods: Clinico-pathological data and surgical paraffin histopathology blocks were assessed from 85 patients treated at Haroldo Juaçaba Hospital (Ethics committee approval number 407.395). Samples were analyzed by immunofluorescence using the Tissue Microarray technique to determine the percentage of fluorescent cells with cytoplasmic HMGB1 (cHMGB1) expression. Results: The clinico-pathological data analysis indicated that patients were older than 50 years (68.2%) and diagnosed with grade 2–3 ductal carcinomas (91.8%). Tumor metastasis was observed in 9.9% of cases. TNBC patients that tumor cells presented high cHMGB1 fluorescence demonstrated increased local tumor recurrence compared with low expressing tumors (P=0.019). Five-year overall survival was simmilar between the patients with low (63%) versus high (66%) cHMGB1 expression (P=0.7441). Additionally, the risk of death was 0.8 (95% CI = 0.21–2.96). Conclusions: The cHMGB1 expression is associated with an increased tumor relapse in TNBC, not affecting patients' survival.

Initial Transarterial Chemoembolization (TACE) Using HepaSpheres 20–40 µm and Subsequent Lipiodol TACE in Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma > 5 cm

Purpose: To investigate clinical outcomes of drug-eluting bead transarterial chemoembolization (DEB-TACE) using HepaSpheres 20–40 µm in diameter and subsequent cisplatin-based lipiodol TACE (Cis-TACE) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) > 5 cm. Materials and Methods: This study included 39 consecutive patients (34 men, 5 women; mean age, 63.5 years; range, 39–80 years) who underwent DEB-TACE using HepaSpheres 20–40 µm as first-line treatment for HCC > 5 cm (mean diameter, 8.2 cm; range, 5.1–13 cm) between September 2018 and August 2019. Patients with new tumors, residual tumors, or tumor growth after initial DEB-TACE underwent subsequent Cis-TACE. Results: All 39 patients underwent initial DEB-TACE successfully, with 35 (89.7%) and three (7.7%) patients experiencing minor and major complications, respectively. After initial DEB-TACE, one patient (2.6%) achieved complete response (CR), 35 (89.7%) achieved partial response (PR), and three (7.7%) experienced progressive disease (PD). During a median follow-up period of 14.4 months (range, 0.6–23 months), 23 patients underwent Cis-TACE, with 11, three, and nine achieving CR, PR, and PD, respectively. The median overall survival time was 20.9 months (95% confidence interval (CI), 18.6–23.2 months), the median time to progression was 8.8 months (95% CI, 6.5–11.1 months), and the median time to local tumor recurrence was 16 months (95% CI, 7.4–24.6 months). Conclusions: DEB-TACE using HepaSpheres 20–40 µm in diameter can be a safe and effective initial treatment method in patients with HCC > 5 cm. Subsequent Cis-TACE constitutes a good adjuvant method to enhance tumor response after initial DEB-TACE.

Feasibility and Techniques of Securing 3D-Safety Margin in Superselective Transarterial Chemoembolization to Improve Local Tumor Control for Small Hepatocellular Carcinoma: An Intend-to-Treat Analysis

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> The aim of this study was to investigate the technical success rate of obtaining 3D-safety margin in superselective conventional transarterial chemoembolization (cTACE) using 3D images for small hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). <b><i>Methods:</i></b> Consecutive 48 HCC nodules (diameter, 1–3 cm) in 44 patients were intentionally treated by superselective cTACE in an attempt to achieve 3D-safety margin. Superselective CT during hepatic arteriography (CTHA) was obtained before cTACE. When negative 3D-safety margin was found, branches supplied into the margin area were detected by using a 3D workstation. The technical success rate to obtain 3D-safety margin was investigated by intend-to-treat analysis. Local tumor recurrence rate and adverse events were also evaluated. <b><i>Result:</i></b> Nine of 48 tumors (18.8%) had 3D-safety margin in the initial superselective CTHA. After pulling back of the catheter and/or selection of another branch based on 3D images, 3D-safety margin was finally achieved in 45 (93.8%). There were 8 of 46 tumors (17.4%) with local recurrence after 5-year follow-up. Grade 3–4 of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, and total bilirubin were found in 38.6, 36.4, and 2.3%, respectively. One portal vein thrombus and 3 biliary dilation or biloma were developed. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> Superselective cTACE obtaining 3D-safety margin in small HCC was feasible with a high success rate by using 3D images, which could be tolerable and prevent local tumor recurrence.