SUVmax indicates progression-free survival in Stage 1 lung cancer
SUVmax (maximum standardized uptake value) may provide a marker to indicate progression-free survival in Stage 1 nonsmall cell lung cancer patients treated with radiation therapy, according to research presented Feb. 9 at the 2013 Cancer Imaging and Radiation Therapy Symposium in Orlando, Fla. The symposium is sponsored by the American Society for Radiation Oncology and the Radiological Society of North America.
Zachary D. Horne, MD, at George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., and colleagues enrolled 95 medically inoperable patients with primary, biopsy-confirmed Stage 1 nonsmall cell lung cancer between October 2005 and May 2011 in their study.
The patients underwent pre-treatment FDG-PET and then radiation therapy consisting of 60 Gy in three fractions. Horne and colleagues estimated tumor control, overall-free and progression-free survival and performed Cox proportional hazards regression to determine whether SUVmax and other measures influenced outcomes.
Pretreatment SUVmax with a cutoff value of 5 predicted overall and progression-free survival. In addition, analysis of variance testing showed tumor T-stage and histology were both significantly correlated to SUVmax, the researchers reported.
“If SUVmax is assessed prior to radiation therapy, specific strategies could be developed to tailor treatments for patients, which would, in turn, provide them with the best chance at a longer and disease-free survival,” Horne said in a press release.
The researchers recommended that additional prospective studies may more accurately define the role of tumor FDG uptake in nonsmall cell lung cancer prognosis.