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Prognostic value of thoracic FDG PET imaging after treatment for non-small cell lung cancer
E F Patz1, J Connolly, J Herndon
1Department of Radiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
Objective:
We determined the prognostic value of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) for patients with treated lung cancer.
Materials And Methods:
We examined patients who underwent FDG PET after first-line treatment for non-small cell lung cancer. FDG PET results were correlated with survival rates to determine whether FDG PET findings were predictive of outcomes.
Results:
After initial therapy, 113 patients with non-small cell lung cancer underwent FDG PET. One hundred patients had positive FDG PET results and a median survival of 12 months (95% confidence interval, 9.2-15.4). Thirteen patients had negative FDG PET results, and 11 (85%) of these patients are still living at a median follow-up of 34 months. The difference in survival for patients with positive and negative FDG PET results was statistically significant (p = 0.002).
Conclusion:
FDG PET has prognostic value and strongly correlates with survival rates of patients with treated lung cancer. Patients with positive FDG PET results have a significantly worse prognosis than patients with negative results. Additionally, FDG PET may be helpful in guiding therapeutic treatments.
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