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The correlation of 18F-FDG PET/CT metabolic parameters, clinicopathological factors, and prognosis in breast cancer

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Abstract

Purpose

To study the imaging parameters of 18F-fluorodeoxy glucose (18F-FDG) in breast cancer on positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT)—the correlation of clinical pathological factors and prognosis among the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax), metabolic tumor volume (MTV), and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) of lesions for patients.

Methods

From January 2012 to December 2014, a total of 125 female patients were treated in our hospital for the first time and were diagnosed as breast cancer by histopathology. They were selected as the research subjects. All of them had complete 18F-FDG PET/CT examination data before surgery, the postoperative clinicopathological information, and follow-up data. They were divided into the event group (38 cases) and the event-free group (87 cases) according to whether local recurrence or distant metastasis occurred after the follow-up, with the follow-up time 4–60 months. The correlation on 18F-FDG PET/CT metabolic parameters of breast cancer with clinicopathological factors and prognosis was retrospectively evaluated.

Results

The primary lesions of 125 cases with breast cancers all had higher 18F-FDG uptake, and the SUVmax, MTV, and TLG of the primary tumors in the event group were significantly higher than those in the event-free group (t = 2.645, 2.782, 15.263, p = 0.011, 0.008, 0.000), p < 0.05; SUVmax, MTV, and TLG of primary breast cancer have no correlation with age and tumor site of patient (p > 0.05); there were statistically significant differences in the SUVmax, MTV, and TLG of primary tumor in the comparison of different tumor size, T stage, N stage, and histological grades (p < 0.05); all of SUVmax, MTV, and TLG in the estrogen receptor (ER) and/or progesterone receptor (PR) positive groups were lower than those in the negative group, with statistically significant difference (p < 0.05); the SUVmax, MTV, and TLG of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) positive group, proliferating cell nuclear antigen (Ki-67) high expression group were higher than those in the negative group and low expression group, with statistically significant difference (p < 0.05). There were 38 recurrence and metastasis cases within 125 cases with breast cancer in 5 years after operation, with the total recurrence and metastasis rate as 30.40% (38/125). The event-free survival rate in the SUVmax ≥ 8.64 group was significantly lower than that in the SUVmax < 8.64 group (p < 0.01).

Conclusions

The metabolic parameters of 18F-FDG PET/CT in breast cancer can reflect the biological behavior of the tumor indirectly; therefore, it was studied on the related correlation to provide the guidance of clinical individualized comprehensive treatment and prognostic judgment.

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Funding

This work was supported by Shandong Medical and Health Technology Development Plan Project (no. 2017WSB832), Shandong Provincial Higher Education Research and Development Program (no. J18KB069).

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Author notes

  1. Y.-H. Qu, N. Long and C. Ran have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Imaging, The Affiliated Yantai Yuhuangding Hospital of Qindao University, No. 20 Yuhuangding East Road, Zhifu District, Yantai, 264000, China

    Y.-H. Qu, N. Long, C. Ran & J. Sun

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  1. Y.-H. Qu
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  2. N. Long
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  3. C. Ran
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  4. J. Sun
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Contributions

Y-HQ designed the study and drafted the manuscript. NL and CR were responsible for the collection and analysis of the experimental data. JS revised the manuscript critically for important intellectual content. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to J. Sun.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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The study was approved by Ethical Committee of the Affiliated Yantai Yuhuangding Hospital of Qingdao University and conducted in accordance with the ethical standards.

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Qu, YH., Long, N., Ran, C. et al. The correlation of 18F-FDG PET/CT metabolic parameters, clinicopathological factors, and prognosis in breast cancer. Clin Transl Oncol 23, 620–627 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12094-020-02457-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12094-020-02457-w

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