Correlation between Arterial Enhancement Fraction on CT and Efficacy of Transcatheter Arterial Chemoembolization for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Objective: To explore the correlation between arterial enhancement fraction (AEF) on Computed Tomography (CT) and the curative effect of Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: We enrolled 43 patients who presented with HCC to our hospital between January 2019 and January 2020 and extracted their clinical data. Three-phase contrast-enhanced CT was performed 1 month before and after TACE; based on TACE efficacy, the enrolled patients were divided into the “effective” and “ineffective” groups. The alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) level was determined using electrochemical luminescence. Changes in the AEF, AFP level, and tumor size before and after treatment were compared between the two groups. The correlation among AEF, AFP level, and tumor-size changes was explored using Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and the area under these curves (AUCs) were used to determine the evaluation value of dynamic enhanced scanning combined with AEF for TACE efficacy. Results: After TACE, the AEF, AFP level, and tumor size decreased in the effective group and were lower than the corresponding values in the ineffective group. Pearson’s correlation analysis revealed that AEF and the AFP level were positively correlated with the tumor size after TACE. ROC analysis revealed that the AUC for dynamic enhanced scanning combined with AEF for TACE efficacy evaluation was 0.902; this was significantly greater than the AUC of dynamic enhanced scanning (0.793) and AEF (0.771) alone. Conclusion: AEF is a reliable parameter for evaluating the therapeutic effect of TACE. The evaluation of TACE efficacy can be further improved by combining AEF with dynamic enhanced scanning; this approach should be used as an auxiliary method for evaluating TACE efficacy for HCC.