Nasopharyngeal carcinoma: relationship between 18F-FDG PET-CT maximum standardized uptake value, metabolic tumour volume and total lesion glycolysis and TNM classification.
OBJECTIVE
We aimed to evaluate the relationships between primary tumour; maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax), metabolic tumour volume (TV) and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) and tumour-node metastases (TNM) classification in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients.


METHODS
Fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography-computed tomography scans of 57 consecutive newly diagnosed NPC patients (age range, 15-80 years) were retrospectively reviewed. SUVmax, TV and TLG were recorded. Two-tailed Spearman's correlation was used to analyse the relationships between the metabolic parameters and the TNM staging system.


RESULTS
Positive correlations were observed between SUVmax (P<0.001, R=0.516), TV (P<0.001, R=0.504) and TLG (P<0.001, R=0.620) and T-stage, and both TV and SUVmax were independent variables that significantly affected T-stage (P<0.001, adjusted R=0.370). No other significant correlations were found between the metabolic parameters and TNM classification system.


CONCLUSIONS
The metabolic parameters derived from fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography-computed tomography were positively correlated with T-stage in primary NPC. Our findings may suggest a complementary role of these parameters to TNM staging in prognostication of NPC patients.
Chan
Winnie K S
WK
Department of Diagnostic Radiology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Mak
Henry K F
HK
Huang
Bingsheng
B
Yeung
David W C
DW
Kwong
Dora Lai-Wan
DL
Khong
Pek-Lan
PL
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006019:Glycolysis; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*
D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18