Progress of diffusion-weighted imaging and perfusion-weighted imaging in evaluation on therapeutic efficiency of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization of hepatocellular carcinoma

Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) is the main treatment of interventional therapy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Early following-up and accurate evaluation after TACE directly determine the follow-up treatment and prognosis of patients. At present, functional MRI, including diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and perfusion- weighted imaging (PWI), can reflect the microscopic changes in tumor before morphologic changes. DWI and PWI provide a new examination for evaluation of HCC, which can detect the change of cell density or tumor vascular density and can early evaluate the tumor response to treatment. The application of DWI and PWI in evaluation of HCC was reviewed in this article. (authors)