18F-fluorodeoxyglucose uptake in different histological subtypes of nasopharyngeal carcinoma

The study aimed to delineate the relationship between 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose uptake and histological findings in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

We conducted a retrospective review of 88 patients referred to our positron emission tomography department with newly diagnosed, biopsy-proved nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Hospital records were reviewed for demographic and clinical data, including age, gender, body weight, histological analysis and clinical tumour stage.

Nineteen out of the 88 patients (22 per cent) had nasopharyngeal carcinoma of World Health Organization type I, 39 (44 per cent) had type II and 30 (34 per cent) had type III. The mean standardised uptake value for the primary tumour was 9.4 +/- 5.0, ranging from 2.2 to 27.1. The mean standardised uptake values were 8.0 +/- 3.9 for type I tumours, 9.7 +/- 4.4 for type II tumours and 10.1 +/- 6.3 for type III tumours (p = 0.451).

Our study found that type III nasopharyngeal carcinoma exhibited a higher 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose uptake than either type II or type I nasopharyngeal carcinoma. However, this difference was not statistically significant.