Relationship between asphericity of FDG uptake in the primary tumor and histopathology in NSCLC


Relationship between asphericity of FDG uptake in the primary tumor and histopathology in NSCLC

Apostolova, I.; Steffen, I. G.; Ego, K.; Kalinski, T.; Schultz, M.; Furth, C.; Genseke, P.; Buchert, R.; Hofheinz, F.; Amthauer, H.

Ziel/Aim:

Asphericity (ASP) is a novel FDG-PET-based in vivo measure of tumor heterogeneity which quantitatively characterizes the tumor's deviation from sphere shape. To better understand its biological and histopathological correlates we
investigated the relationship with histopathological features in NSCLC.
Methodik/Methods:
FDG-PET/CT had been performed in 76 unselected patients (66.4±9.3 years) with newly diagnosed NSCLC prior to therapy. Primary tumor resection specimens and core biopsies were used to assess histologic subtype, degree of
differentiation, and Ki-67 proliferation index. The FDG PET image of the primary tumor was delineated by an automatic algorithm based on adaptive thresholding taking local background into account. ASP and SUVmax were considered as quantitative PET measures. Their correlation with clinicopathological features was analyzed using Spearman's correlation; differences between groups were analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests.
Ergebnisse/Results:
Squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) exhibited significantly higher SUVmax than adenocarcinomas (ADC, Mann-Whitney, p=0.04), whereas there was no significant effect of histological type on ASP. There was a moderate but significant correlation with Ki-67 for ASP (r=0.39, p=0.001), a weak correlation for SUVmax (r=0.28, p=0.02). Both correlations were stronger in the ADC than in the SCC subgroup. Ki-.67 > 50% was associated with higher ASP (Mann-Whitney, p=0.04) and higher SUVmax (p=0.07). Grade 3 tumors had a tendency for higher ASP (p=0.07) but not SUVmax (p=0.29). Pathological T and N stage were associated with both SUVmax (Kruskal-Wallis, p=0.004/ p=0.02) and ASP (p<0.001/p=0.06). Only SUVmax was associated with M stage (p=0.02).
Schlussfolgerungen/Conclusions:
Tumor asphericity (ASP) appears to depict different features of tumor biology in NSCLC than SUVmax. This is in line with our previous finding that ASP provides independent information for prognosis in patients with NSCLC.

  • Lecture (Conference)
    53. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Nuklearmedizin (DGN), 22.-25.04.2015, Hannover, D
  • Abstract in refereed journal
    Nuklearmedizin 54(2015), A75
    ISSN: 0029-5566

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-21862
Publ.-Id: 21862