HepaT1ca: Quantifying Liver Health in Surgical Candidates for Liver Malignancies

The liver is unique among the abdominal organs for the capacity to regenerate post-operatively. However, a minimum functional liver remnant (FLR) is required for patients to survive the initial perioperative period. At present, the assessment of the FLR is based on volume alone, in the context of clinical judgment and surrogate markers of liver function based on blood tests. Recently, Perspectum Diagnostics have developed and validated LiverMultiScan, an MRI-based technology that can non-invasively quantify fibroinflammatory disease in addition to steatosis and iron content. In this project, we plan to use LiverMultiScan as an additional direct measurement of liver health prior to resectional surgery or transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), so that liver volume and function can be combined. For example, surgery with a predicted FLR of 21% might be survivable if the liver tissue was in extremely good health, whereas surgery with a predicted FLR of 40% might be lethal if the liver tissue was in poor health. Occasionally, portal vein embolization (PVE) is performed to promote hypertrophy of the FLR. Furthermore, non-resectional intervention, for example TACE for primary liver cancers, is well-tolerated by patients with healthy livers, but can lead to serious liver decompensation and liver failure if TACE is delivered to a liver in poor health. Currently, the available imaging modalities are limited in their ability to assess liver health in liver resection or TACE candidates. Liver fat content (steatosis) can be assessed with CT, or more accurately with MRI. However, fibroinflammatory disease, which has been shown to correlate with post-resection morbidity, typically requires an invasive biopsy to diagnose accurately.

This research project will support the definition, development and technical validation of Hepatica, which aims to build on the MRI technology underlying LiverMultiScan and develop the additional functionality required to meet this clinical need.