Study participants

This retrospective study protocol received approval from the Medical Ethics Committee of Beijing Cancer Hospital, and informed consent was waived.

CRLM patients with a pathologic diagnosis of hepatic lymph nodes in our hospital between January 2015 and January 2023 were included in this study. Patients had to undergo at least two cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy and undergo MRI examinations before neoadjuvant chemotherapy (pre-treatment point) and within 1 mo before surgery (post-treatment point). Exclusion criteria were: (1) Patients who underwent hepatectomy without hepatic lymph node resection; (2) Patients without measurable hepatic lymph nodes > 5 mm on the baseline MRI; and (3) Patients without multiple b-values of DWI sequence or insufficient quality of DWI for analysis. A total of 97 patients were enrolled in this study.