Abstract: Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the performance of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) in diagnosis andevaluation of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) efficacy in patients with primary liver cancer (PLC). Methods 68 patients with intrahepatic spaceoccupying lesions were encountered in our hospital between January 2017 and June 2021, and all patients underwent DCE-MRI and fine needle aspiration biopsies. The patients with PLC were treated by TACE. The clinical epidemiology analysis skills was applied toevaluate the performance of DCE-MRI in diagnosing PLC. Results The DCE-MRI showed that the intrahepatic malignant lesions had some special feature, such as low frequency signal in T1WI, high frequency signal in T2WI, arterial enhancement, rapid disappeared in portal stage; the cytolgical examination demonstrated the PLC in 64 cases, and non-cancerous foci in 4 cases out of our series; the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive and negative predictive values by DCE-MRI diagnosis were 95.2%,75.0%, 89.7%, 93.8%, and 25.0%; after TACE treatment, the DCE-MRI scan showed complete remission in 18 cases (28.1%), partial remission in 25 cases (39.1%), stable disease in 15 case (23.4%) and disease progression in 6 cases (9.3%). Conclusion The DCE-MRI is a great importance in preoperative diagnosis and postoperative efficacy evaluation in patients with PLC, which could guide clinicians to make appropriate decisions for management.

Key words: Hepatoma, Dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging, Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization, Diagnostic performance, Efficacy evaluation