Application of Intravoxel Incoherent Motion in the Prediction of Intra-Tumoral Tertiary Lymphoid Structures in Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Objective: To explore the value of intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) sequences in predicting intra-tumoral tertiary lymphoid structures (TLSs).

Materials And Methods: This prospective study pre-operatively enrolled hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients who underwent magnetic resonance imaging including IVIM sequences, between January 2019 and April 2021. Intra-tumoral TLSs presence was assessed on pathological slide images. Clinical and radiological characteristics were collected. IVIM quantitative parameters and radiomics features were obtained based on the whole delineated tumor volume. By using feature selection techniques, 22 radiomics features, clinical-radiological features (lymphocyte count and satellite nodules), and IVIM parameters (apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC_90Percentile), perfusion fraction (f_Maximum)) were selected. The logistic regression algorithm was used to construct the prediction model based on the combination of these features. The diagnostic performance was assessed using the area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUC). The recurrence-free survival (RFS) was evaluated with Kaplan-Meier curves.

Results: A total of 168 patients were divided into training (n=128) and testing (n=40) cohorts (mean age: 56.83±14.43 years; 149 [88.69%] males; 130 TLSs+). In testing cohort, the model combining multimodal features demonstrated a good performance (AUC: 0.86) and significantly outperformed models based on single-modality features. The model based on radiomics features (AUC: 0.80) had better performance than other features, including IVIM parameter maps (ADC_90Percentile and f_Maximum, AUC: 0.72) and clinical-radiological characteristics (satellite nodules and lymphocyte counts, AUC: 0.59). TLSs+ patients had higher RFS than TSLs- patients (all <0.05).

Conclusion: The nomogram based on the proposed model can be used as a pre-operative predictive biomarker of TLSs.

Critical Relevance Statement: The nomogram incorporating IVIM sequences may serve as a pre-operative predictive biomarker of intra-tumoral tertiary lymphoid structure (TLS) status.