The efficacy of ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography for the evaluation of hepatocellular carcinoma treatment

Abstract

By the FDG-PET images, the necrosis region in the HCC nodules were recognized as the less FDG-accumulated region than the live region of HCC or the noncancerous liver tissue. With comparative study to histological examination in 13 resected cases, the discrepancy between FDGPET and histological analysis of necrosis rate of HCC nodules was 7.38±6.33% in average error.
The effect of transarterial embolization treatment (TAE) in 6 non resected cases were then studied by FDG-PET analysis. After TAE, all cases had decreased maximum count of live region of HCC and or increased necrosis rate. Since this method is free from the accumulation of Lipiodol in tissue and FDG accumulation represents the tissue hexokinase activity, FDG-PET could evaluate the changes of tissue viability as maximum count changes and the increase of necrosis rate before and after TAE.
In summary, FDG-PET could present the therapeutic efficacy of TAE, and also would be useful to determine the timing of next TAE treatment.