Positron emission tomography 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose uptake and prognosis in patients with surgically treated, stage I non-small cell lung cancer: a systematic review.
BACKGROUND
18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake holds potential as a noninvasive biomarker in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We aimed to investigate the association between tumor FDG uptake and survival in patients with surgically resected, stage I NSCLC.


METHODS
We used systematic methods to identify studies for inclusion, assess methodological quality, and abstract relevant data about study design and results.


RESULTS
Our literature search identified 1578 citations, of which nine retrospective, cross-sectional studies met eligibility criteria. In all studies, higher degrees of FDG uptake in the primary tumor were associated with worse overall or disease free survival after 2 to 5 years of follow-up, but these differences were statistically significant in only five studies. Across studies, the median overall or disease free survival was 70% for patients with higher FDG uptake compared with 88% for patients with lower FDG uptake. In three studies that performed multivariable analysis, the adjusted hazard of death or recurrence was 1.9 to 8.6 times greater in patients with higher FDG uptake.


CONCLUSIONS
Current evidence suggests that increasing tumor FDG uptake is associated with worse survival in patients with stage I NSCLC. FDG uptake has the potential to be used as a biomarker for identifying stage I patients who are at increased risk of death or recurrence and therefore could identify candidates for participation in future trials of adjuvant therapy.
Nair
Viswam S
VS
Divisions of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305, USA. viswamnair@stanford.edu
Krupitskaya
Yelena
Y
Gould
Michael K
MK
D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D011379:Prognosis; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D015996:Survival Rate; D014018:Tissue Distribution; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18