Feasibility and Efficacy of Fusion Imaging Systems for Immediate Post Ablation Assessment of Liver Neoplasms: Protocol for a Rapid Systematic Review.

Introduction: Percutaneous thermal ablation is widely adopted as a curative treatment approach for unresectable liver neoplasms. Accurate immediate assessment of therapeutic response post-ablation is critical to achieve favourable outcomes. The conventional technique of side-by-side comparison of pre- and post-ablation scans is challenging and hence there is a need for improved methods, which will accurately evaluate the immediate post-therapeutic response.

Objectives and significance: This review summarizes the findings of studies investigating the feasibility and efficacy of the fusion imaging systems in the immediate post-operative assessment of the therapeutic response to thermal ablation in liver neoplasms. The findings could potentially empower the clinicians with updated knowledge of the state-of-the-art in the assessment of treatment response for unresectable liver neoplasms.

Methods and analysis: A rapid review will be performed on publicly available major electronic databases to identify articles reporting the feasibility and efficacy of the fusion imaging systems in the immediate assessment of the therapeutic response to thermal ablation in liver neoplasms. The risk of bias and quality of articles will be assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias tool 2.0 and Newcastle Ottawa tool.

Ethics and dissemination: Being a review, we do not anticipate the need for any approval from the Institutional Review Board. The outcomes of this study will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Highlights: Evaluation of the therapeutic response in liver neoplasms immediately post-ablation is critical to achieve favourable patient outcomes. We will examine the feasibility and technical efficacy of different fusion imaging systems in assessing the immediate treatment response post-ablation. The findings are expected to guide the clinicians with updated knowledge on the state-of-the-art when assessing the immediate treatment response for unresectable liver neoplasms.