This retrospective study included 191 patients with a single HCC lesion who underwent preoperative CT and EOB-MRI at three tertiary care centers between January 2017 and May 2021. The patients were evaluated for VETC using three previously reported radiological feature-based criteria: the SN score, the VETC nomogram, and Fan’s model. The diagnostic accuracy of these criteria was assessed by calculating the area under the curve (AUC) for each method on both CT and EOB-MRI images. Comparisons of AUCs between the criteria were made using the DeLong method. The study also examined the association between the VETC stratification, as determined by these imaging criteria, and the likelihood of early recurrence, which was defined as recurrence within two years after resection.