title: Pre-treatment metabolic tumor volume and total lesion glycolysis are useful prognostic factors for esophageal squamous cell cancer patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study application of the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax), metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) with 18F-FDG PET/CT for predicting prognosis of esophageal squamous cell cancer (ESC) patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eighty-six patients with ESC staged from I to IV were prospectively enrolled. Cisplatin-based chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) or palliative chemoradiotherapy were the main treatment methods and none received surgery. 18F-FDG PET/CT scans were performed before the treatment. SUVmax, MTV, and TLG were measured for the primary esophageal lesion and regional lymph nodes. Receiver operating characteristic curves (ROCs) were generated to calculate the P value of the predictive ability and the optimal threshold.
  
  
  RESULTS
  MTV and TLG proved to be good indexes in the prediction of outcome for the ESC patients. An MTV value of 15.6 ml and a TLG value of 183.5 were optimal threshold to predict the overall survival (OS). The areas under the curve (AUC) for MTV and TLG were 0.74 and 0.70, respectively. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed an MTV less than 15.6 ml and a TLG less than 183.5 to indicate good media survival time (p value <0.05). In the stage III-IV patient group, MTV could better predict the OS (P < 0.001), with a sensitivity and specificity of 0.80 and 0.67, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pre-treatment MTV and TLG are useful prognostic factors in non- surgical ESC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University, Xiamen, China E-mail : wuhua1025@163.com.
authors.forename: Yi-Min
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Qin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Long
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Li-Chen
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Long
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Ming-Ming
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.forename: Zuo-Ming
authors.initials: ZM
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology*; D059248:Chemoradiotherapy; D002945:Cisplatin / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology*; D000077277:Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006019:Glycolysis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D064847:Multimodal Imaging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D011379:Prognosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012372:ROC Curve; D047368:Tumor Burden
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D002945:Cisplatin