To evaluate the safety and efficacy of transarterial chemoembolization with degradable starch microspheres (DSM-TACE) for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with a high tumor burden ineligible for or failing other palliative therapies, 121 patients from three European centers were included. Kaplan–Meier analysis was used for median overall survival (OS) and time to progression (TTP, mRECIST criteria) in months with a 95% confidence interval (95% CI). Uni- (UVA) and multivariate (MVA) analyses were performed using the Cox Proportional Hazard Model. The median OS of the study cohort was 15.5 (13.3–18.7) months. The UVA identified HCC lesions ≤10 cm, unilobar involvement, lower Child–Pugh class and Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stage, absence of vascular invasion, and extrahepatic metastases as factors for prolonged survival. MVA confirmed lesions of ≤10 cm and unilobar disease as independent OS factors. Median TTP was 9.5 (7.6–10.3) months. The best response was achieved after a median of 3 (range: 1–6) treatments with CR/PR/SD/PD in 13.5%/44.5%/25.2%/16.8%, respectively. DSM-TACE was well tolerated with no major clinical adverse events and only limited major laboratory events. Preserved liver function was observed after repetitive DSM-TACE treatments. Repetitive DSM-TACE is a safe, well-tolerated and effective treatment option for HCC patients with high tumor burden ineligible or failing other palliative therapies.

Background: To investigate and compare the diagnostic performance of ¹⁸F-Fluorodeoxyglucose (¹⁸F-FDG) PET/MR and MR alone in whole-body primary staging and restaging of patients with rectal cancer. Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed to evaluate diagnostic accuracies of combined reading of PET/MR and MR alone in T, N and M staging against the reference standard. Inter-observer agreement regarding TNM staging was calculated separately for PET/MR and MR alone. Results: A total of 39 studies of 34 patients could be evaluated. Diagnostic accuracies of PET/MR and MR alone were the same in locoregional T staging. For predicting N+ stage, the specificity of combined reading of PET and MR (0.917 and 0.833 for reader 1 and 2, respectively) was slightly higher than MR alone (0.833 and 0.75) without significantly increasing the overall accuracy (0.783 vs. 0.783 and 0.783 vs. 0.739). For detecting distant metastasis, the sensitivities of PET/MR and MR alone were shown equal (1.0 vs. 1.0 and 0.938 vs. 0.938), while the specificity of PET/MR was marginally lower (0.87 vs. 0.913 and 0.826 vs. 0.87). The inter-observer agreements were good to excellent in M (κ = 0.64 and 0.637 for PET/MR and MR alone, p < 0.001) and N staging (0.819 and 0.738, p < 0.001).Conclusion: PET did not yield a significant improvement in diagnostic accuracy of PET/MR in TNM staging of rectal cancer, since MR alone facilitated accurate classification of disease stage with good to excellent inter-observer agreement.

Recommended treatment options for advanced-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) include systemic therapy (ST) and trans-arterial radioembolization (TARE) with Yttrium-90 (Y90). Before the approval of immune-checkpoint inhibitors, a similar safety profile was reported for TARE and ST with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI). However, whole-liver treatment and underlying cirrhosis were identified as risk factors for potentially lethal radioembolization-induced liver disease (REILD). Therefore, the safety and efficacy of TARE and ST with atezolizumab/bevacizumab were compared in patients with advanced HCC involving at least both liver lobes in a retrospective real-world cohort. In total, 74 patients with new or recurrent advanced-stage HCC (BCLC stage B/C) were included if treated with either bilobar TARE (n = 33) or systemic combination therapy with atezolizumab plus bevacizumab (n = 41). Most patients had compensated liver function (90.5% were classified as Child-Pugh Score A, 73% as ALBI Grade 1) at baseline. Although not significant, patients treated with ST showed a more prolonged overall survival than those treated with Y90 TARE (7.1 months vs. 13.0 months, p = 0.07). While a similar disease control rate could be achieved with bilobar TARE and atezolizumab/bevacizumab, in the TARE group, overall survival was curtailed by the occurrence of REILD. In patients with underlying liver cirrhosis, the liver function at baseline was a predictor for REILD.

Background and Aims: Radioembolization (RE) has recently demonstrated a non-inferior survival outcome compared to systemic therapy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Therefore, current guidelines recommend RE for patients with advanced HCC and preserved liver function who are unsuitable for transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) or systemic therapy. However, despite the excellent safety profile of RE, post-therapeutic hepatic decompensation remains a serious complication that is difficult to predicted by standard laboratory liver function parameters or imaging modalities. LiMAx^® is a non-invasive test for liver function assessment, measuring the maximum metabolic capacity for 13C-Methacetin by the liver-specific enzyme CYP 450 1A2. Our study investigates the potential of LiMAx^® for predicting post-interventional decompensation of liver function. Patients and methods: In total, 50 patients with HCC with or without liver cirrhosis and not amenable to TACE or systemic treatments were included in the study. For patients prospectively enrolled in our study, LiMAx^® was carried out one day before RE (baseline) and 28 and 90 days after RE. Established liver function parameters were assessed at baseline, day 28, and day 90 after RE. The relationship between baseline LiMAx^® and pre-and post-interventional liver function parameters, as well as the ability of LiMAx^® to predict hepatic decompensation, were analyzed. Results: We observed a strong association between baseline LiMAx^® and bilirubin, albumin, ALBI grade, and MELD score. Patients presenting with Child–Pugh score B 28 days after RE or with a deterioration in Child–Pugh score by at least one point had a significantly lower baseline LiMAx^® compared to those with Child–Pugh score A or with stable Child–Pugh score. The ability of LiMAx^® to predict hepatic decompensation after RE was determined using ROC curve analysis and was compared to MELD score and ALBI grade. LiMAx^® achieved a substantial AUC of 0.8117, comparable to MELD score and ALBI grade. Conclusion: Patients with lower LiMAx^® values at baseline have a significantly increased risk for hepatic decompensation after RE, despite being categorized as Child–Pugh A. Therefore, LiMAx^® can be used as an additional tool to identify patients at high risk of post-interventional hepatic failure.