ABSTRACT
Objective To assess the prognostic value of tumor burden measured by 18F-fluorodeoxy glucose-positron emission tomography ( FDG PET) imaging for stage Ⅲ NSCLC). Methods Fifty-six patients with lung cancer were analyzed, to whom staging PET-CT scans before treatment concurrent chemoradiotherapy and 2-year follow-up were performed. , Relationship between overall survival (OS) and metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) were determined.Results The estimated median OS for the cohort were 14. 5 months. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that MTV had a significant effect on OS (x2 =5.42 ,P =0. 014). No significant relationship was found between SUVmax and OS ( x2 = 0. 74, P = 0. 391 ). According to multivariate Cox regression analysis, MTV and SUVmax wereassociatedwithincreaseddeath ( x2 = 5.54, P = 0.019; x2 = 4.47, P = 0.031 ). Conclusions This study shows that higher tumor burden assessed by PET MTV is an independent unfavorable prognostic factor in lung cancer, MTV is valuable for predicting overall survival and could be a prognostic factor.