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@ARTICLE{Lurje:309673,
author = {I. Lurje and W. Werner and N. Hilbert and A.-M. Mohan and
K. Reers and A. Schlutt and M. Kuzminskaya and Y. Shevchenko
and L. Wiering and I. Eichhorn and W. Brenner$^*$ and N.
Beindorff and F. Tacke and L. Hammerich},
title = {{Q}uantification of overall tumor burden using longitudinal
magnetic resonance imaging improves response assessment in
orthotopic murine hepatocellular carcinoma models.},
journal = {Scientific reports},
volume = {16},
number = {1},
issn = {2045-2322},
address = {[London]},
publisher = {Springer Nature},
reportid = {DKFZ-2026-00295},
pages = {5247},
year = {2026},
note = {#DKTKZFB9# / #NCTZFB9#},
abstract = {Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most frequent
causes of cancer-related death worldwide.Mirroring the
complexity of human HCC with its underlying liver disease
requires multilocularorthotopic tumor models in mice, where
objective tumor quantification in vivo is
challenging,especially longitudinally. We investigated
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to noninvasively
quantifyorthotopic HCC in an immunotherapy setting.
Orthotopic HCCs were induced in
diethylnitrosamine(DEN)-injected mice with either
CCl4-induced hepatic fibrosis or dietary metabolic
dysfunctionassociated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) to
mirror the most frequent etiologies. Growth kineticsover the
course of immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment with
anti-Programmed Death Ligand1 (αPD-L1) were modeled by
measuring the overall tumor burden (OTB) using MRI and
comparedto untreated animals. Tumor parameters, such as
tumor volume, liver weights at sacrifice andlargest tumor
diameter were analyzed. We demonstrate that MRI is a
reliable imaging tool for bothpretreatment tumor
confirmation as well as the longitudinal quantification of
overall tumor burdenunder investigational treatment. While
measuring only the largest tumor diameter yielded
significantdifferences between αPD-L1-treated animals and
untreated controls in the long-term setting,these trends in
tumor response were not confirmed by MRI-based OTB
measurement. In MASLDHCC, tumors did not respond to PD-L1
blockade, thus confirming the OTB data and reflecting
theimmunotherapy resistance observed in the human setting
and highlighting the translational relevanceof the model.
Orthotopic fibrosis-HCC and MASLD-HCC mouse models can be
enhanced through thelongitudinal use of MRI while reducing
endpoints and animal numbers. The DEN-CCl4 and
DEN-WesternDiet models mirror the αPD-L1 response from the
human setting and require OTB measurement,because largest
diameters may underestimate the total tumor mass in
orthotopic HCC.},
cin = {BE01 / BR01},
ddc = {600},
cid = {I:(DE-He78)BE01-20160331 / I:(DE-He78)BR01-20160331},
pnm = {899 - ohne Topic (POF4-899)},
pid = {G:(DE-HGF)POF4-899},
typ = {PUB:(DE-HGF)16},
pubmed = {pmid:41644986},
doi = {10.1038/s41598-026-38125-2},
url = {https://inrepo02.dkfz.de/record/309673},
}