Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most dangerous malignancies in human health, with the sixth highest incidence of malignant tumors. However, early diagnosis of HCC is difficult. The currently used glucose metabolism imaging agent, 18F-FDG, also accumulates in large amounts in normal liver tissue, which affects the diagnosis of HCC lesions.~Prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA), a type II transmembrane glycoprotein encoded by the FOLH1 gene, is highly expressed in prostate epithelial cells and has been widely used in the study of prostate cancer. Further studies have found that it is involved in tumor angiogenesis in a variety of solid tumors of non-prostate tissue origin. It is also overexpressed in neovascular endothelial cells of hepatocellular carcinoma, which is significantly associated with tumor grading, staging and prognosis. Moreover, PSMA also has great potential as a target for anti-vascular therapy.~The integrated PET/MR is currently the most advanced imaging device, combining the advantages of PET and MR, with the high sensitivity of PET and the high soft tissue contrast of MR. It has significant advantages over PET/CT in head and neck, abdominopelvic lesions. And MR imaging has no additional radiation and a higher biosafety profile.~In view of the potential of 68Ga-PSMA for HCC imaging, this prospective study proposes to apply 68Ga-PSMA integrated PET/MR imaging for diagnosis and staging of HCC. The detection and diagnostic performance of 68Ga-PSMA PET/MR for HCC was evaluated in comparison with the gold standard of biopsy or postoperative pathology. The aim is to make up for the deficiency in FDG PET imaging in the diagnosis and staging of HCC.
In this prospective study, 68Ga-PSMA integrated PET/MR imaging was applied for the diagnosis and staging of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The detection and diagnostic performance of 68Ga-PSMA PET/MR for HCC was evaluated in comparison with the gold standard of puncture biopsy or postoperative pathology. The aim is to make up for the deficiency in FDG PET imaging in the diagnosis and staging of HCC.