13C-MRI Detects Increased Lactate Flux in HCC Following Hepatic Thermal Ablation and Correlates with PFKFB3 Expression

Thermal ablation (TA) is commonly used to treat early hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and liver metastases. However, there is increasing clinical and experimental evidence that TA may sometimes induce more aggressive tumor biology within and outside the liver. We used hyperpolarized ¹³C MRI to detect increased HCC lactate flux following adjacent normal liver radiofrequency ablation in a rat model. This increased flux correlated with an increase in tumor expression of PFKFB3, a known modulator of glycolysis. PFKFB3 may be a potential therapeutic target and hyperpolarized ¹³C MRI may be used to track or predict treatment response.