Prognostic significance of metabolic tumor volume and total lesion glycolysis in patients with advanced cervical carcinoma

AIM

18-Fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose positron emission tomography (¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT) is considered to be the most accurate image method of detection of node or distant metastases in cervical cancer. Metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) of ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT are volumetric measurements of tumor cells with increased ¹⁸F-FDG uptake. The prognostic value of MTV and TLG in patients with advanced cervical cancer (ACC) were evaluated.

METHODS

38 patients with ACC from one tertiary university hospital underwent ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT between June 2009 and December 2015. Clinicopathologic factors and various PET parameters were analyzed to evaluate their relationship with recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS). These parameters were: maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax), mean standardized uptake value (SUV mean), metabolic tumor volume (MTV), and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) of the primary tumor, of the pelvic nodes, of the paraaortic nodes and the metabolic volume of the metastases if any.

RESULTS

A total of 38 patients with ACC fulfilled the inclusion criteria. All of them underwent a ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT before definitive chemoradiotherapy. In the univariate analyses higher tumor size, pelvic lymph node metastasis and both MTV and TLG showed a significant association with OS and with RFS (MTV HR=1.55, p=0.011 and TLG HR=1.43, p=0.017 for RFS and MTV HR=1.82, p=0.006 and TLG HR=1.67, p=0.007 for OS).

CONCLUSION

Pretreatment TLG sum and MTV sum seem to be independent prognostic factors for OS and RFS in patients with advanced cervical cancer treated with definitive chemoradiotherapy and they are better than the classic measurement of SUVmax.