The diagnostic accuracy of imaging methods in preoperative prediction of vessels encapsulating tumor clusters in hepatocellular carcinoma in East Asian populations: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Preoperative imaging methods demonstrate moderate diagnostic accuracy for the non-invasive prediction of VETC status in HCC. Notably, AI-based imaging approaches show superior diagnostic performance compared to conventional imaging techniques in identifying VETC patterns. Nevertheless, because of the substantial heterogeneity observed among the studies included in the analysis, caution is warranted in interpreting these results.