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Research progress of magnetic resonance imaging in predicting immunohistochemical markers in hepatocellular carcinoma
LI Jiahui  ZHU Shaocheng 

Cite this article as: LI J H, ZHU S C. Research progress of magnetic resonance imaging in predicting immunohistochemical markers in hepatocellular carcinoma[J]. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2025, 16(6): 182-188, 219. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.06.028.


[Abstract] Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a highly prevalent malignant tumor, is characterized by significant heterogeneity and variable prognosis. Immunohistochemical markers play a critical role in the diagnosis, treatment and prognostic evaluation of HCC. However, current reliance on invasive pathological methods limits their utility for dynamic monitoring and early application. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRl), leveraging its multi-parametric capabilities, offers a noninvasive approach to predict HCC immunohistochemical markers, while emerging radiomics techniques demonstrate substantial potential in biomarker prediction. There is a lack of systematic reviews to discuss the application value of MRI in predicting HCC immunohistochemical markers. This article synthesizes advances in MRI morphological, functional and radiomics for predicting key HCC immunohistochemical markers, including Ki-67, glypican-3, cytokeratin 19, programmed death-1 and its ligands, P53 tumor protein, and vascular endothelial growth factor. We critically evaluate the roles of MRI features and radiomics methodologies in predicting these markers, alongside their technical strengths and limitations. Our analysis identifies critical challenges: conventional MRI lacks dynamic correlation between imaging phenotypes and pathological mechanisms, with insufficient specificity in certain imaging features, while radiomics models suffer from feature instability due to single-center small-sample datasets and poor interpretability. Future research should integrate multi-modal functional MRI, multi-center big data, and artificial intelligence-enhanced radiomics to establish a noninvasive evaluation framework, thereby advancing HCC clinical paradigms toward imaging-driven intelligent decision-making.
[Keywords] hepatocellular carcinoma；immunohistochemical markers；magnetic resonance imaging；radiomics

LI Jiahui1, 2   ZHU Shaocheng1, 2, 3*  

1 Department of Medical Imaging, People's Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450003, China

2 Department of Medical Imaging, Henan Provincial People's Hospital, Zhengzhou 450003, China

3 Department of Radiology, Fuwai Central China Cardiovascular Hospital, Zhengzhou 450003, China

Corresponding author: ZHU S C, E-mail: zsc2686@163.com

Conflicts of interest   None.

Received  2025-03-07
Accepted  2025-06-05
DOI: 10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.06.028
Cite this article as: LI J H, ZHU S C. Research progress of magnetic resonance imaging in predicting immunohistochemical markers in hepatocellular carcinoma[J]. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2025, 16(6): 182-188, 219. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.06.028.

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