Liver stiffness measured by magnetic resonance elastography in early recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma after treatment A protocol for systematic review and meta analysis

Background: With high diagnostic accuracy, magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) is a noninvasive tool and can be adopted to measure liver stiffness (LS). In this study, meta-analysis was carried out to further evaluate whether LS measured by MRE can predict early recurrence in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: PUBMED, EMBASE, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Cochrane Library database were searched for studies related to LS measured by MRE in the prediction of recurrence in patients with HCC. Survival outcome was estimated by hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Meta-analysis was conducted with the Stata 16.0. Results: The results of this meta-analysis will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal for publication. Conclusion: This study will provide evidence support for LS measured by MRE in predicting the recurrence of HCC. Ethics and dissemination: The private information from individuals will not be published. This systematic review also should not damage participants' rights. Ethical approval is not available. The results may be published in a peer-reviewed journal or disseminated in relevant conferences. OSF Registration Number: DOI 10.17605/ OSF.IO / SURH3.