Correlation of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography related parameters with the degree of proliferation in lung adenocarcinoma

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the correlation between positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) parameters and the degree of proliferation of lung adenocarcinoma. A retrospective analysis was conducted on 50 patients who had undergone surgical treatment for lung adenocarcinoma and had been subsequently diagnosed pathologically. The general clinical characteristics of the subjects were documented, and the presurgical 2-deoxy-2-fluorine-18-fluoro-D-glucose ¹⁸F-FDG) PET/CT-related parameters were quantified or calculated, including age, gender, maximum standardised uptake value (SUVmax), mean standard(ised uptake value (SUVmean), total lesion glycolysis (TLG), tumour metabolic volume (MTV), and maximum tumour mediastinal background ratio (SUVtmr). The correlation between each parameter and the tumour Ki-67 expression level was assessed using two grouping methods. The results demonstrated that there was no statistically significant difference in SUVmax, SUVmean, and SUVtmr between the Ki-67 (++) group (10% < Ki-67 ≤ 50%) and the Ki-67(+++)(Ki-67 > 50%) group. This difference was only observed between the Ki-67(+) group (Ki-67 ≤ 10%) and the Ki-67(++) group, as well as between the Ki-67(+) group and the Ki-67(+++) group. When grouping was less distinct, PET/CT-related parameters between the low expression level group (Ki-67 ≤ 10%) and the high Ki-67 expression level group (Ki-67 > 10%) were statistically significant. This study found that PET/CT-related parameters, particularly SUVmax, SUVmean, and SUVtmr, were not effective in accurately distinguishing between the lung adenocarcinoma Ki-67(++) (10% < Ki-67 ≤ 50%) and Ki-67(+++) (Ki-67 > 50%) groups.

Keywords: Adenocarcinoma of lung; Ki-67 antigen; Positron-emission tomography.

Fig. 1

The ROC curves of SUVmax, SUVmean, SUVtmr.