Relationship between 18F-FDG PET/CT metabolic parameters and clinicopathological features of non-small cell lung cancer and its prognostic significance

Jian Su^1#, Haimei Meng^1#, Hongying Tian², Xiaodong Li¹, Na Feng^3*, Xi Dong^1*

¹Department of Nuclear Medicine, The Affiliated Hospital of Hebei University, Baoding, Hebei, 071000, China - ²The outpatient department, The Affiliated Hospital of Hebei University, Baoding, Hebei, 071000, China - ³Department of Radiology, The Affiliated Hospital of Hebei University, Baoding, Hebei, 071000, China

Objective: This study analyzed the correlations of ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT metabolic parameters with the clinicopathological features and prognosis of NSCLC to provide more reliable reference for clinical diagnosis. 

Method: Totally 87 patients with NSCLC were enrolled as research objects. The patients were given ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT examination before treatment, then followed up for 3 years to determine the prognostic value of SUV_max, MTV, as well as TLG. 

Results: SUV_max, MTV, and TLG had no strong correlations with age, gender, smoking, family medical history, and pathogenic site, but had strong correlations with tumour size, pathological type, TNM stage, lymph node metastasis (LNM), and differentiation. In addition, the three demonstrated a high predictive value for tumour size > 3cm, pathological type, development of I-II into III-IV, LNM, and development of medium-high differentiation into low differentiation in patients with NSCLC. 

Conclusion: ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT metabolic parameters are highly effective in evaluating the disease development and prognosis of patients, and will be crucial references for future clinical diagnosis and treatment of NSCLC.