title: Clinical Significance of 18F-FDG-PET in Invasive Lobular Carcinoma.
abstract: The diagnostic utility of18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-positron emission tomography (PET) for breast cancer is controversial. The histological type or tumor size of breast cancer has been reported to be associated with a greater likelihood of positive FDG uptake. Compared to invasive ductal carcinomas (IDCs), invasive lobular carcinomas (ILCs) have a lower level of FDG uptake and are detected at a significantly lower sensitivity. The role of preoperative FDG-PET for ILCs may, thus, be limited. Few data evaluating the significance of FDG-PET in ILCs are available. Here, we evaluated the clinical significance of FDG-PET for ILC patients. We retrospectively investigated the cases of 196 consecutive patients with primary breast cancer who were diagnosed as having ILC (n=15) or IDC (n=181) and underwent FDG-PET preoperatively. Fifteen (7.7%) of patients were histopathologically diagnosed as ILC. A univariate analysis revealed that tumor size, extent of tumor, estrogen receptor (ER) expression and progesterone receptor (PgR) expression were significantly different between the ILC and IDC groups. The maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) values of the primary tumors were not significantly different between the two groups but, regardless of the larger size of tumor or ductal spread, the SUVmaxwas relatively lower in the ILC group compared to the IDC group. The tumors in two ILC cases showed no FDG uptake. Among the ILC cases, there were linear associations between SUVmaxand tumor size and between SUVmaxand the nuclear grade by Pearson correlation (r=0.447, p=0.048 and r=0.519, p=0.024, respectively). Our findings imply that the preoperative FDG uptake in ILC may be reflective of the tumor size and the nuclear grade of the tumor. FDG uptake may be useful and predictive of aggressive features or prognosis in ILC patients.
authors: Department of General Surgical Science, Graduate School of Medicine, Gunma University, Gunma, Japan ftakaaki@gunma-u.ac.jp.|Breast and Endocrine Surgery, Gunma University Hospital, Gunma, Japan.
authors: Takaaki
authors: T
authors: Fujii
authors: Department of General Surgical Science, Graduate School of Medicine, Gunma University, Gunma, Japan.|Breast and Endocrine Surgery, Gunma University Hospital, Gunma, Japan.
authors: Reina
authors: R
authors: Yajima
authors: Breast and Endocrine Surgery, Gunma University Hospital, Gunma, Japan.
authors: Sasagu
authors: S
authors: Kurozumi
authors: Breast and Endocrine Surgery, Gunma University Hospital, Gunma, Japan.
authors: Toru
authors: T
authors: Higuchi
authors: Breast and Endocrine Surgery, Gunma University Hospital, Gunma, Japan.
authors: Sayaka
authors: S
authors: Obayashi
authors: Breast and Endocrine Surgery, Gunma University Hospital, Gunma, Japan.
authors: Hideaki
authors: H
authors: Tokiniwa
authors: Breast and Endocrine Surgery, Gunma University Hospital, Gunma, Japan.
authors: Rin
authors: R
authors: Nagaoka
authors: Breast and Endocrine Surgery, Gunma University Hospital, Gunma, Japan.
authors: Daisuke
authors: D
authors: Takata
authors: Breast and Endocrine Surgery, Gunma University Hospital, Gunma, Japan.
authors: Jun
authors: J
authors: Horiguchi
authors: Department of General Surgical Science, Graduate School of Medicine, Gunma University, Gunma, Japan.
authors: Hiroyuki
authors: H
authors: Kuwano
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D018275:Carcinoma, Lobular / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18
keywords: FDG-PET; breast cancer; invasive lobular carcinoma; nuclear grade; size