# mRECIST for liver cancer (modified RECIST)

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/mrecist/  
OnCo record `mrecist` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

mRECIST measures only the living, blood-supplied part of a liver cancer on scans, because treatments such as chemoembolisation can kill a tumour without shrinking it.

## Summary

WHO criteria underestimated response in hepatocellular carcinoma, so an EASL panel amended them in 2000 to count treatment-induced necrosis. RECIST measures shrinkage, which can mislead after targeted drugs or treatments given into the liver. In 2008 an AASLD panel applied the idea of viable tumour, the part that takes up contrast in the arterial phase, to amend RECIST; Lencioni and Llovet (Seminars in Liver Disease 2010) summarised these rules as modified RECIST and noted they still needed checking against pathology of removed livers.

mRECIST for liver cancer is not the same as the modified RECIST used for pleural mesothelioma or thymic tumours, which change how the tumour is measured rather than what is measured.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-11-04
- Also known as: mRECIST; modified RECIST; mRECIST for HCC; viable tumour

## Sources

- Lencioni and Llovet, Modified RECIST (mRECIST) assessment for hepatocellular carcinoma (Semin Liver Dis 2010): https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0030-1247132

## Connected records

- terms: [BCLC staging](https://onco.cc/terms/bclc-staging/), [EASL response criteria for liver cancer (2001)](https://onco.cc/terms/easl-criteria/), [LI-RADS (Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System)](https://onco.cc/terms/li-rads/), [RECICL (Japanese response criteria for liver cancer)](https://onco.cc/terms/recicl/), [RECIST](https://onco.cc/terms/recist/)
- cancers: [Hepatocellular carcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/hcc/)
- technologies: [CT (computed tomography)](https://onco.cc/technologies/ct/), [MRI](https://onco.cc/technologies/mri/)

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