[Relationship between fluorodeoxyglucose uptake and vascular endothelial growth factor in early-stage nasophygeal carcinoma].
OBJECTIVE
To study the overexpression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake in early-stage nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and evaluate their relationship.


METHODS
FDG positron emission tomography (PET) was performed in forty patients with stage I and stage II NPC. The maximum and mean standard uptake values (SUVmax and SUVmean, respectively) were measured in each patient, and the expression of VEGF was measured on paraffin sections using immunohistochemistry.


RESULTS
The FDG uptake in the patients were 9.45-/+1.87 (SUVmax) and 6.04-/+1.09 (SUVmean), 8.95-/+1.91 (SUVmax) and 6.04-/+1.09 (SUVmean) in stage I patients, and 11.55-/+1.70 (SUVmax) and 7.98-/+1.1 (SUVmean) in stage II patients. The FDG uptake of stage II patients was higher than that of stage I patients. The FDG uptake of non-keratinizing differentiated carcinoma was 9.74-/+1.82 (SUVmax) and 6.82-/+1.23 (SUVmean) and 10.44-/+2.16 (SUVmax) and 6.68-/+1.35 (SUVmean) in non-keratinizing undifferentiated carcinoma, showing no significant differences between them (SUVmax: t=1.230, P>0.05; SUVmean: t=0.346, P>0.05). The VEGF-positive cells were 60.80% in the tumor. A correlation between VEGF expression and FDG uptake in he tumor was noted (r=0.460, P=0.03).


CONCLUSIONS
VEGF overexpression is correlated to FDG uptake in patients with early-stage NPC. The SUV value reflects the glucose metabolism of NPC, and also shows the degree of oxygen insufficiency in the tumor tissue.
Department of Nuclear Medicine, the Second People's Hospital of Guangdong Provincial, Guangzhou 510317, China. fanyix06@sohu.com
Yi-xiang
YX
Fan
Wei-min
WM
Shi
Jing
J
Li
Ji-lin
JL
Yin
Chuan-hong
CH
Yang
Mei-ju
MJ
Gao
Ji-zhen
JZ
Wu
Qin-zhu
QZ
Liu
Ke-bin
KB
Li
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000378:metabolism*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D055815:Young Adult
D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; C467484:VEGFA protein, human; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18