Role of baseline ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT metabolic parameters in the treatment response and prognosis of invasive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

Objective To explore the role of baseline 18fluorfluoride deoxyglucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography(¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT) metabolic parameters on the treatment response and outcome of invasive non-Hodgkin′s lymphoma(NHL).

Methods The clinical data of 101 patients with invasive NHL were retrospectively analyzed. All patients received chemotherapy with the R-CHOP regimen and ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT examination. According to the treatment response, the patients were divided into the complete response group(63 cases), partial response group(22 cases) and non-response group(16 cases), In addition, according to the prognosis, the patients were divided into the good prognosis(66 cases) and poor prognosis(35 cases). The treatment response and baseline ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT metabolic parametersincluding the maximum standardized uptake value(SUVmax), tumor metabolic volume(MTV) and total glycolysis(TLG) were compared among all groups. The predictive value of the baseline ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT metabolic parameters on treatment response and outcome of invasive NHL were analyzed using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.

Results The differences of the baseline SUVmax, MTV, and TLG among the invasive NHL patients with different treatment response were statistically significant(F=37.38, 22.20 and 17.16, P < 0.05). The baseline SUVmax, MTV, and TLG in complete response group and partial response group were lower than those in non-response group, and which in the complete response group was lower than that in partial response group(P < 0.05). The baseline SUVmax, MTV, and TLG levels in the good prognosis group were lower than those in poor prognosis group(t=6.49, 6.02 and 5.48, P < 0.05). The results of ROC curve showed that the baseline SUVmax, MTV, and TLG had high predictive value for treatment response and prognosis of invasive NHL(AUC=0.791, 0.792, 0.797, 0.792, 0.790, 0.791, P < 0.01), and the predictive value of combined detection was higher(AUC=0.853, 0.846, P < 0.01).

Conclusions The ¹⁸F FDG-PET/CT) metabolic parameters(combined detection baseline SUVmax, MTV, TLG) have high predictive value on the treatment response and prognosis of invasive NHL.