Prognostic value of fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography in non-small cell lung cancer: a review

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains a leading cause of cancer morbidity and mortality. Adjuvant chemotherapy improves survival in resected early-stage NSCLC. However, a significant proportion of patients with early-stage lung cancer are cured by surgery alone. There are no reliable clinical or molecular markers to predict outcomes after surgery in early-stage NSCLC. Positron emission tomography with 2-[F]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG-PET) improves the accuracy of staging work-up in NSCLC. The standardized uptake value, a commonly used semiquantitative measure of FDG uptake, correlates with tumor doubling time and indices of cell cycling. Therefore, FDG-PET may be a useful predictor of outcome independent of its role in tumor staging. In this review, we critically examine the published studies on the utility of FDG-PET as a prognostic tool in patients with NSCLC and provide direction for future research.