Abstract
Recent advances in chemotherapy have expanded the opportunity for curative resection of colorectal liver metastases (CRLMs). Disappearing liver metastases (DLMs) are often encountered following chemotherapy. This study aimed to determine whether the DLMs observed by contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT) and gadoxetic acid-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (EOB-MRI) following preoperative chemotherapy were associated with a pathologic complete response(pCR). Patients who underwent hepatectomy between April 2020 and December 2022, following preoperative chemotherapy at our institution, were selected. Before chemotherapy, all patients underwent CECT, some patients also underwent EOB-MRI, and both imaging studies were performed on all patients after chemotherapy. Pathologic responses of all resected tumors were evaluated. For the unresected DLMs, they were defined as DLMs if they did not reappear in the imaging studies conducted over the following year. A total of 29 patients were selected. After chemotherapy, 138 DLMs were found by CECT and 106 were found by EOB-MRI. Of the resected DLMs confirmed only by CECT, tumor cells remained in 90% of them. All of resected DLMs confirmed by EOB-MRI showed a pCR. Of the remaining 39 unresected DLMs, one reappeared within a year. EOB-MRI is superior to CECT for the diagnosis of DLMs.