Clinical value of 18F-FDG PET/CT in clinical staging and therapeutic evaluation of follicular lymphoma / 中华核医学与分子影像杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the clinical value of 18F-FDG PET/CT in staging,therapeutic response evaluation,relapse early detection and prognostic prediction of follicular lymphoma (FL).Methods Twenty-eight patients (12 males,16 females; average age 57 (36-82) years) with pathologically confirmed FL from December 2005 to January 2013 were enrolled.All patients underwent 18F-FDG PET/CT before treatment.The SUVmax of different staging groups,different pathological grade groups (high3a+3b; low1+2) was compared.Seventeen of 28 patients underwent PET/CT after chemotherapy and received phone follow-up (10-88 months) to monitor the progress of treatment.Survival difference was analyzed.Mann-Whitney u test,Wilcoxon signed-rank test and Kaplan-Meier survival analysis were used for data analysis.Results (1) The initial clinical staging without 18F-FDG PET/CT based on Ann Arbor standard changed in 4 cases (up-staging in 3 cases,down-staging in 1 case) after the PET/CT scan.The 18F-FDG uptake (SUVmax) in patients of stage Ⅰ/Ⅱ and stage Ⅲ/Ⅳ was 10.1±3.2 and 11.5±4.9,respectively (Z=-0.619,P＞0.05).The SUVmax in patients of the low grade group (6.9±3.6,n=15) was significantly lower than that of the high grade group (12.4±5.6,n=13) (Z=-3.706,P＜0.01).(2) 17 patients underwent PET/CT scan both before and after chemotherapy,the pre-treatment SUVmax and post-treatment SUVmax were significantly different in CR+PR group (10.8±5.1 vs 3.4±2.3; Z=-2.312,P＜0.05),while there was no significant difference in SD+PD group (11.2±6.9 vs 7.8±3.3; Z=-1.153,P＞0.05).There was a significant difference in the median progress-free survival time between the CR+PR group and the SD+PD group (48 months vs 26 months; x2 =4.207,P＜0.05).Conclusion 18F-FDG PET/CT has an advantage in clinical staging,therapeutic evaluation,relapse monitoring and prognosis predicting of FL.