PET / MR With PSMA for Diagnosis and Staging of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Assess the rate and degree of PSMA uptake in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma submitted to PET/MRI scans. The objective is to evaluate its value on diagnosis and staging of HCC.

PET/MR - PSMA have emerged as a new method and there are few studies about its role in the evaluation of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The hypothesis in this study is that PET/MRI with PSMA might have an additional value in the assessment of hepatocellular carcinoma, contributing to the diagnosis of distant metastasis and to confirm the diagnosis in undetermined nodules by the standard exams (computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging). Patients with hepatocellular carcinoma diagnosed by computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging and referred to a liver transplant or surgery by clinical decision wil be submitted to a whole-body PSMA-PET/MRI and will be included in this prospective unicentric study to be conducted at Instituto do Câncer do Estado de São Paulo (ICESP) and Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo (HC-FMUSP). All cases will be evaluated to determine the presence and degree of PSMA uptake on lesions considered as definitely HCCs by CT or MRI. The sensitivity of PSMA - PET/MR for the diagnosis of HCC will be calculated. The added value of PSMA - PET MR on systemic staging will be calculated by the number of lesions considered suspicious for malignancy that were not detected by conventional scans.

Positron Emission Tomography/Magnetic Resonance) (PET/MR), Magnetic resonance imaging, Hepatocellular carcinoma

Patients with an imaging diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma and candidates to a liver transplant or surgical resection will be submitted to a novel imaging scan, PET / MRI with PSMA. The role of this imaging scan on diagnosis and staging of HCC will be evaluated.

A whole-body PET using PSMA as a radiotracer associated to an upper abdomen MRI with gadoxetic acid as contrast agent

Patients with a liver lesion diagnosed as hepatocellular carcinoma by MRI or CT and candidates to surgical resection or liver transplant will be submitted to PET MRI with PSMA. Based on the presence or absence of PSMA uptake, sensitivity and specificity of PET MRI for diagnosis of the liver lesion and extrahepatic disease will be calculated.

For all liver lesions diagnosed as HCC, the degree of PSMA on PET uptake will be measured and correlated with available pathology information

All other non-HCC nodules simultaneously diagnosed will be also evaluated in terms of presence and degree of PSMA uptake. This results will be computed and correlated with all pathology data available

Whenever a treated observation is present, the presence and degree of PSMA uptake will be evaluated and correlated to conventional imaging scans and pathology results available

Inclusion Criteria: Patients with an imaging diagnosis of HCC by a previous CT or MRI, reviewed by an abdominal radiologist Patients candidates to liver transplant or surgical resection Exclusion Criteria: Patients with treated liver lesion without viable tumor Age under 18 Pregnancy Patients with renal insufficiency; Elevated bilirubin levels (>3 mg/dL) Known allergy to contrast media (gadoxetic acid) or radiotracer (PSMA); Blood glucose level higher than 150 mg/dl. MR contraindications (claustrophobia, cardiac pacemakers, neurostimulators, cochlear implants, and insulin pumps).