Value of 18F-FDG PET/CT in staging of pancreatic cancer / 中华核医学与分子影像杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the value of 18F-FDG PET/CT in tumor staging in patients with pancreatic cancer.Methods A total 77 patients (from June 2010 to August 2015;44 males, 33 females, age range 36-83 years) who underwent 18F-FDG PET/CT examination for pancreatic cancer and confirmed with pathology were enrolled in this retrospective study.All patients had not been treated before the PET/CT scanning and received surgery or biopsy 4 weeks after the scanning.Two-sample t test and ROC curve analysis were used for data analysis.Results 18F-FDG uptake was higher in 94.8%(73/77) of pancreatic lesions than that in normal pancreatic tissue.The range of SUVmax of pancreatic lesions was 2.4-13.4(mean 6.2±2.4).SUVmax of patients with smaller primary lesion (minor axis≤2.0 cm) was significantly lower than that of larger lesion group (minor axis >2.0 cm;t=-2.661, P<0.05).A total of 46 patients underwent lymph node excision, and the mean number of excised lymph nodes per patient was 13.8±9.2.About 56.5%(26/46)cases with lymph nodes metastases were confirmed with pathology.When the cut-off value of minor axis of regional lymph nodes was 0.45 cm, ROC curve showed that the sensitivity, specificity and AUC were 84.8%(39/46), 65.2%(30/46) and 0.788, respectively.When the cut-off value of SUVmax of regional lymph nodes was 2.05, the sensitivity, specificity and AUC were 54.3%(25/46), 80.4%(37/46) and 0.759, respectively.18F-FDG PET/CT changed 18.2%(14/77)of patients′ treatment plan.Conclusions 18F-FDG PET/CT is a useful tool in pancreatic cancer staging.Though 18F-FDG PET/CT has no significant advantages in N-staging, it really helps to make a more accurate M-staging for clinical decision.