Prognosis significance of 18 F-FDG PET/CT imaging in patients with postoperative esophageal cancer / 中华核医学与分子影像杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the prognostic value of SUVmax , SUVmean , MTV and TLG cal-culated from 18 F-FDG PET/CT in patients with postoperative esophageal cancer. Methods Sixty-one pa-tients ( 51 males, 10 females;age ranged 50-81 ( median64) years) with esophageal cancer who under-went preoperative 18 F-FDG PET/CT from October 2007 to November 2015 were retrospectively analyzed. The relation of SUVmax , SUVmean , MTV and TLG in primary lesions with clinic pathological factors was ana-lyzed. Differences of metabolic parameters were compared with two-sample t test, one-way analysis of vari-ance, Mann-Whitney u test or Kruskal-Wallis H test. The optimal cutoff points of SUVmax , SUVmean , MTV and TLG for predicting overall survival ( OS) were investigated by ROC curve analysis. The Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test were used to perform univariate survival analysis, and Cox proportional hazards model was used for multivariate analysis. Results MTV and TLG were associated with tumor length, N stage and clinical stage, while SUVmax and SUVmean were only associated with tumor length ( t=-2.396, F=4.206, 4. 471;z=-3.051,χ2=8.908, 9.796;t=-2.417,-2.423;all P<0. 05) . The optimal cutoff points of SUVmax, SUVmean, MTV and TLG were 11.76, 7.06, 24.35 cm3 and 166. 84 g, respectively. Univariate analysis of OS showed that the lymphatic metastasis, clinical stage and TLG were all significantly associated with the patient outcome (χ2=14.683, 7.139, 11.669, all P<0.05) . Multivariate analysis showed that lym-phatic metastasis and TLG were the independent predictors for OS (β=-1. 472, -1. 223; Wald=5. 224, 4. 668;both P<0.05) . Conclusion For predicting the prognosis of esophageal cancer after operation, TLG of the primary tumor may be more valuable than SUVmax , SUVmean and MTV.