Advances on the role of Gd-EOB-DTPA enhanced MR in management of colorectal cancer liver metastasis

Imaging modalities, such as multidetector CT and Gd-DTPA enhanced MRI, are commonly used for evaluating liver metastasis, and most of which can be accurately diagnosed. However, it's difficult to detect and make an accurate diagnosis in these settings: ① when the diameter of liver metastasis spot is less than 1cm; ② when liver injury, such as hepatic steatosis, steatohepatitis, sinusoidal obstruction syndrome, occurs after the adjuvant chemotherapy or postoperative chemotherapy; ③ whether there is residual tumor or not after the resection or liver-directed therapy of liver metastasis. Gd-EOB-DTPA enhanced MRI can not only provide the dynamic enhanced information on livers and morphological information of liver diseases, similar to multidetector CT and Gd-DTPA enhanced MR, but also provide functional information on hepatocytes and malignant lesions, thus improving the ability of differentiating metastasis from other kinds of lesions. Gd-EOB-DTPA enhanced MRI has been thought to be the most sensitive method in the detection of hepatic metastases, and is an important complement to conventional enhanced CT and MR. This article reviewed the researches on liver metastasis from colorectal cancer using Gd-EOB-DTPA enhanced MRI, hoping to improve the management of liver metastasis. Key words: Colorectal carcinoma; Liver metastases; Gd-EOB-DTPA; Magnetic resonance imaging