Advances in imaging research for prognostic evaluation after hepatocellular carcinoma ablation therapy

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HUANG Huiying ZHANG Yumin LUO Ningbin

Cite this article as: HUANG H Y, ZHANG Y M, LUO N B. Advances in imaging research for prognostic evaluation after hepatocellular carcinoma ablation therapy[J]. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2025, 16(9): 209-214, 222. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.09.032.

Abstract

[Abstract] Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality worldwide and ranks among the most common malignancies in China. Thermal ablation, recommended by clinical guidelines as a curative option for very early-stage HCC, provides comparable survival to surgical resection but is challenged by a high recurrence rate. Accurate and noninvasive evaluation of residual tumor viability and early recurrence is therefore essential for improving patient outcomes. Existing reviews have primarily focused on single imaging modalities, with limited systematic discussion of multimodal imaging and radiomics. This review aims to summarize the advances in imaging-based prognostic evaluation after HCC thermal ablation, covering contrast-enhanced ultrasound, computed tomography (CT) perfusion imaging, MRI functional imaging, and radiomics, deep learning approaches. We compare their strengths and limitations in assessing therapeutic efficacy and recurrence risk, highlight current clinical challenges, and propose future research directions. We argue that the integration of multimodal imaging and radiomics techniques represents a promising strategy to enhance the accuracy of post-ablation evaluation, while large-scale multicenter prospective studies and standardized modeling frameworks are urgently needed to facilitate clinical translation.

[Keywords] hepatocellular carcinoma；thermal ablation；postoperative evaluation；magnetic resonance imaging；radiomics；deep learning

Contributor Information

HUANG Huiying ZHANG Yumin LUO Ningbin^*

Department of Radiology, Guangxi Medical University Cancer Hospital, Nanning 530021, China

Corresponding author: LUO N B, E-mail: flying047@163.com

Conflicts of interest None.

Publication Information

Received 2025-06-10

Accepted 2025-09-10

DOI: 10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.09.032

Text

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