title: 18F-FDG PET/CT as a semiquantitative imaging marker in HPV-p16-positive oropharyngeal squamous cell cancers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  There is evidence that the status of human papilloma virus subtype 16 (HPV-p16) alters the prognosis of patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell cancer (OSCC). We sought to establish whether there is a relationship between HPV-p16 status and 18F-FDG uptake in the prognosis of OSCC.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients with newly diagnosed OSCC at our institution between June 2011 and June 2012 were retrospectively evaluated. All patients underwent a baseline 18F-FDG PET/computed tomographic scan and HPV-p16 testing. Tumour maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax), mean standardized uptake value (SUVmean) and total glycolytic activity (TGA) [defined as metabolic tumour volume (MTV) multiplied by SUVmean] were measured. All PET/computed tomographic scans were reviewed on a Siemens Syngo.via (version VA11B_HF03) workstation. A designated operator defined the region of the primary tumour with the MTV segmented by 40% of the SUVmax fixed threshold method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seventy-nine patients aged 27-84 years met the criteria for inclusion in the study. The types of primary tumour were tonsillar squamous cell carcinoma in 48% and base of tongue squamous cell carcinoma in 29%. The mean SUVmax was 17.5 and 17.7 in HPV-p16-positive and HPV-p16-negative groups, respectively (P=0.90). The mean MTV was 8.36 and 7.07 ml in HPV-p16-positive and HPV-p16-negative patients, respectively (P=0.42). The mean TGA values were 96.3 and 82.5 g among the HPV-p16-positive and HPV-p16-negative patients (P=0.54). There was no significant difference between HPV-p16 status and tumour grading for any of the imaging markers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There were no statistically significant differences between HPV-p16-positive and HPV-p16-negative OSCC for any of the metabolic imaging markers (SUVmax, SUVmean, MTV and TGA) measured in this study.
authors.affiliation: aDepartment of Nuclear Medicine and Specialised PET Services Queensland, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Herston bDepartment of Medical Imaging, Gold Coast University Hospital cSchool of Medicine, Griffith University, Southport dSchool of Medicine, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: Yu-Ting
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Aravind S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Ravi Kumar
authors.forename: Sandeep
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bhuta
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D052162:Human papillomavirus 16 / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D064847:Multimodal Imaging; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D009959:Oropharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
chemical_list: D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18