title: Does Metastatic Lymph Node SUVmax Predict Survival in Patients with Esophageal Cancer?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We aimed to investigate the SUVmax of primary tumor and metastatic lymph node in predicting survival in patients with esophageal cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrospectively analyzed patients with esophageal cancer between 2009 and 2011 who had FDG positron-emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT). All patients were followed-up to 2013. Clinical staging, SUVmax of primary tumor and metastatic lymph node were evaluated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  One hundred seven patients were included in the study. All patients were followed-up between 2 and 49 months. The mean SUVmax of primary tumor and metastatic lymph node were 19.3±8.8 and 10.4±9.1, respectively. Metastatic lymph node SUVmax had an effect in predicting survival whereas primary tumor SUVmax did not have an effect (p=0.014 and p=0.262, respectively). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that clinical stage of the disease was the only independent factor predicting survival (p=0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Among patients with esophageal cancer, the value of primary tumor SUVmax did not have an effect on survival. Clinical stage assessed with FDG PET/CT imaging was found to predict survival in esophageal carcinoma. Additionally, lymph node SUVmax was identified as a new parameter in predicting survival in the present study.
authors.affiliation: İstanbul University Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine, Department of Nuclear Medicine, İstanbul, Turkey Phone: +90 212 414 20 00 E-mail: bvatankulu@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Betül
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vatankulu
authors.forename: Yasemin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Şanlı
authors.forename: Esra
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kaytan Sağlam
authors.forename: Serkan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kuyumcu
authors.forename: Zeynep Gözde
authors.initials: ZG
authors.lastname: Özkan
authors.forename: Ebru
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Yılmaz
authors.forename: Sevim
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Purisa
authors.forename: Işık
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Adalet