title: Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Diagnosis and Monitoring of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Liver Transplantation: A Comprehensive Review.
abstract: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary liver cancer. One of the most important risk factors of HCC is cirrhosis. The optimal treatment of HCC is liver transplantation, since it treats both the underlying cirrhosis and the cancer. Patients that have risk factors should be included in surveillance programs since HCC can be cured only during the early stages. Surveillance can be performed by ultrasonography (US), which is an inexpensive, non-invasive, and widely available technique, but it is considered to have a low sensitivity. If a suspicious lesion is detected on US exam, computerized tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be used to further evaluate this lesion. MRI is considered to be superior to CT because it has greater contrast resolution and tissue characterization. In this article, we present a review of MRI for HCC in liver transplantation (LT) with a focus on characteristic MR features of this tumor and current guidelines.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Division of MRI, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Cesur
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Samanci
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Division of MRI, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Fatemeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sobhani
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Transplant Hepatology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Enver
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ucbilek
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Section of Transplant Surgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Katie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rakestraw
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Section of Transplant Surgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Nabil N
authors.initials: NN
authors.lastname: Dagher
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Division of MRI, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Ihab R
authors.initials: IR
authors.lastname: Kamel
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Transplant Hepatology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Ahmet
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gurakar
mesh_terms: D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging