title: Comparison of characteristics of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose and 18F-fluorothymidine PET during staging of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to compare the characteristics derived from fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (F-FDG) and fluorine-18 fluorothymidine (F-FLT) PET quantitatively and to assess their capacities during staging of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-six patients with a diagnosis of ESCC who underwent both F-FDG and F-FLT PET were included in this study. Different image-derived indices including the standardized uptake value (SUV), gross tumor length, and texture features were determined. Considering histopathologic examination as the gold standard, the performance of the extracted indices during staging of ESCC was assessed using the Kruskal-Wallis test and the Mann-Whitney test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Considering the F-FDG PET images, the SUVmax, SUVmean, length (LEN), and eccentricity (EC) were significant during staging of American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) and TNM (P<0.01), whereas for the F-FLT image, the SUVmax, LEN, and EC were significant during staging of AJCC and TNM (P<0.01). The characteristics of F-FDG and F-FLT PET for the classification of ESCC stage were significantly different.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  F-FDG image-derived characteristics including image textural features, SUV, and shape feature allow for better stratification of AJCC and TNM than F-FLT PET in ESCC patients.
authors.affiliation: aDepartment of Radiation Medicine and Protection, Medical College of Soochow University, Suzhou bDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Shandong Cancer Hospital, Shandong Province, China cDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.
authors.forename: Changsheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Dengwang
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: Jianping
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cao
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology*; D015224:Dideoxynucleosides; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology*; D000077277:Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D015224:Dideoxynucleosides; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; C002854:alovudine