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Volume 42 Issue 7
Jul.  2026
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Article Navigation >  Journal of Clinical Hepatology  > 2026  >  42(7): 1526-1531

Research hotspots and advances in contrast-enhanced ultrasound for hepatocellular carcinoma

DOI: 10.12449/JCH260707

  • Department of Ultrasound Medicine，Peking Union Medical College Hospital，Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences，Beijing 100730，China

Research funding:

National Natural Science Foundation of China (62325112);

National Natural Science Foundation of China (U22A2023);

CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (2025-I2M-XHJC-003);

Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Public-interest Scientific Institution of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (2024-RC320-02)

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  • Corresponding author: Yang Meng， yangmeng_pumch@126.com （ORCID： 0000-0002-4339-0411）
  • Received Date: 2026-05-20
  • Accepted Date: 2026-07-13
  • Published Date: 2026-07-25
    Abstract
  • Hepatocellular carcinoma （HCC） is the most common type of primary liver cancer and has a poor overall prognosis. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound （CEUS） plays a crucial role in the diagnosis， treatment response evaluation， and prognostic evaluation of HCC. This article systematically reviews the literature characteristics， research hotspots， and frontier advances of CEUS in the field of HCC. There has been a gradual increase in annual publication volume in this field， with China ranking first globally in the total number of publications. Highly cited articles mainly focus on clinical guidelines and standardized protocols. Keyword analysis shows that the main research hotspots in this field include the diagnosis and standardized assessment of HCC， differential diagnosis， treatment response evaluation after local therapy， and prognostic prediction. Meanwhile， microvascular invasion， artificial intelligence （AI）， and super-resolution ultrasound （SRUS） may be emerging as cutting-edge frontiers in this field. Specifically， AI can be used for the auxiliary diagnosis of HCC， the evaluation of tumor biological characteristics， and prognostic prediction， and SRUS can overcome the acoustic diffraction limit to achieve precise microvascular imaging of the liver. Currently， a solid foundation has been established for the research on CEUS in HCC， showing a strong orientation toward clinical practice. In the future， emerging technologies such as CEUS-based AI models and SRUS are expected to further promote the development of precise diagnosis and treatment for HCC.

     

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