The investigation of imaging biomarkers predicting hepatic stem cell feature and epithelial-mesenchymal transition feature in hepatocellular carcinoma

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K19780
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Radiation science
• Research Institution: Kanazawa University
• Principal Investigator: Yoneda Norihide 金沢大学, 附属病院, 助教 (30721930)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 肝幹細胞 / 上皮間葉移行(EMT) / 肝細胞癌 / 画像バイオマーカー

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) positive hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) having hepatic stem cell feature showed significantly higher incidence of imaging features including a heterogeneous arterial enhancement and internal no enhancement portion on dynamic CT study, lower apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value on diffusion weighted image, and non-smooth margin on hepatobiliary phase (HB phse) of Gd-EOB-DTPA enhanced MRI (EOB-MRI). These imaging findings are useful for predicting EpCAM positive hepatocellular carcinoma and are thought to contribute to future personalized medicine.
Regarding epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) positive HCCs, there was no significant imaging features that can predict epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) positive HCCs. However enhancement ratio of HB phase of EOB-MRI tended to be lower in EMT positive HCCs compared with EMT negative HCCs.

Free Research Field

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