Clinical value of CEUS with tumor marker monitoring in evaluating the prognosis of HCC after MWA

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate the prognostic value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) combined with tumour markers in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) undergoing microwave ablation (MWA).

Methods: MWA patients with HCC were divided into good prognosis (n = 75) and poor prognosis (n = 69) groups. The levels of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), carbohydrate antigen (CA19-9), and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) before and after MWA were analysed using an independent sample t-test. The correlation between prognosis, ablation lesion area, and tumour marker levels were analysed by Pearson's correlation. The diagnostic power of the ablation lesion area combined with tumour marker levels for the prognosis of patients with MWA was analysed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves.

Results: The levels of AFP, CA19-9, and CEA in the good prognosis group were significantly lower than those in the poor prognosis group (all P < 0.001). The levels of all tumour markers were significantly negatively correlated with the prognosis of patients who underwent MWA (all r < 0, P < 0.001) and positively correlated with the area of tumour-ablated lesions (r > 0, P < 0.001). Moreover, the diagnostic efficacy of CEUS combined with tumour markers for the prognosis of patients who underwent MWA was significantly higher than that of either single diagnostic modality.

Conclusions: CEUS combined with tumour marker monitoring can effectively improve the accuracy of prognostic diagnosis in patients with MWA and provide a reference for timely and reasonable treatment and therapeutic evaluation.