Diagnostic Value of SUV in 18F-FDG PET/CT for Papillary Thyroid Cancer

ABSTRACT

Background and Objectives@#PET/CT is widely used to determine whether metastasis or recurrence will occur following initial treatment of thyroid cancer. However, there are not much research on diagnostic usefulness of preoperative PET/CT imaging for papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). We analyzed the correlation between the preoperative maximum standard uptake value (SUVmax) of PET/CT and prognostic factors of PTC to evaluate the diagnostic usefulness of PET/CT. @*Materials and Methods@#Of the 133 patients who underwent surgery for PTC, 88 patients who had an increased uptake in thyroid mass in preoperative PET/CT were enrolled. They were divided into two groups according to B-RAF gene mutation, extrathyroidal extension (ETE), lymph node metastasis, and recurrence. The average of the SUVmax for each group was analyzed through multiple regression analysis. Correlation analysis were performed on changes in SUVmax according to the size of the thyroid tumor. Statistical analysis was performed to determine whether there were stage differences between the 47 patients who had no increased uptake in PET/CT and the others who had. @*Results@#There were no statistical correlation between recurrence, the presence of central/lateral lymph node metastasis, ETE, stage and the SUVmax in PET/CT (p=0.513, p=0.8, p=0.73, p=0.01, p=0.9). There were statistical correlations between the size of tumor (p=0.001), the presence of the B-RAF mutation (p=0.024) and SUVmax. Statistical correlations between the presence of the hypermetabolic uptake and high stage were found by the chi-square test (p=0.012). @*Conclusion@#The size of tumor, B-RAF are major factors in determining prognosis of PTC. There is a possibility that there is a correlation between preoperative SUVmax and prognosis of PTC.