Clinical utility of one month imaging following selective internal radiation therapy

Purpose: The goal of this retrospective review was to determine the clinical relevance of one-month post-treatment imaging in the selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT) patient population by reporting the incidence of change in clinical management. Materials and methods: Between January 2012 and January 2016, 85 patients underwent 109 SIRT treatments for either primary or secondary hepatic malignancies. There were 59 men and 26 women with a mean age of 62.4 years (range: 39–89 years). Patients’ medical records were retrospectively reviewed for procedural, historical, laboratory and imaging information. The imaging study was considered to have changed patients’ clinical management if it resulted in the addition of a new procedure, canceling of a planned procedure or change in systemic therapy. Results: The one-month post-treatment imaging findings led to management changes in 10 of 109 (9.2%) of treatments. When evaluated by cancer type, 2/61 (3.3%) hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treatments had management changed while 8/48 (16.7%) non-HCC treatments underwent management change (P = 0.03). This difference was also significant at multivariate analysis (P = 0.03; odds ratio: 0.17 [0.03–082]). Conclusion: Management is rarely changed by one-month post-SIRT imaging in patients with HCC and thus is likely unwarranted. Conversely, in non-HCC patients, one month post-SIRT imaging led to a significant percentage of clinical management changes suggesting that one month imaging in this setting is likely warranted.