FIGURE 2.

Heterogeneous tumors in the hepatobiliary phase of EOB-MRI exhibit heterogeneous OATP1B3 expression and high VETC positivity. (A) Schema of each enhancement pattern. (B) HBP-Hetero pattern tumors had higher VETC positivity than HBP-Homo tumors (χ² test). (C) WNT β-catenin pathway–activated (W/B) HCCs showed higher OATP1B3 scores than non-W/B HCCs (χ² test). (D) OATP1B3 intensity score, proportion score, and their sum (OATP1B3 score) for each enhancement pattern. (E) A case of VETC⁺ HCC with HBP-Hetero/hyper pattern. A strongly enhanced region in the hepatobiliary phase (lower right) had no VETC structures but strong OATP1B3 expression, whereas a weakly enhanced region (upper left) showed VETC structures but weak OATP1B3 expression. Abbreviations: OATP1B3, organic anion transporting peptide 1B3; VETC, vessels encapsulating tumor clusters.