The relationship between 18F-FDG metabolic volumetric parameters and clinicopathological factors of breast cancer

This study was conducted to evaluate the relationship between fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose metabolic parameters [maximum standardized uptake value (SUV(max)), metabolic tumor volume (MTV), and total lesion glycolysis (TLG)] and clinicopathological factors of breast cancer.

The study comprised 93 patients. A volumetric region of interest was drawn over the abnormal focal uptake of breast cancer. Spearman's rank correlation, the Kruskal-Wallis test, and receiver operating characteristic analysis were used to investigate the relationship between clinicopathological factors and metabolic parameters and determine which metabolic parameters were most highly associated with clinicopathological factors.

All parameters had a statistically significant relationship with pathological T stage (p-T stage), pathological N status (p-N status), pathological stage (p-stage), and triple-negative type (TN) (all P values were <0.05). There were statistically significant differences between SUV(max) and TLG in relation to lymphatic invasion, estrogen receptor, and nuclear grade (P<0.05). High MTV showed a tendency toward association with estrogen receptor negativity, but the relation did not reach the level of statistical significance (P=0.056). No statistically significant relationship was observed between MTV and lymphatic invasion or nuclear grade. In the receiver operating characteristic analysis of p-T stage and p-stage, the AUC for TLG was significantly larger than that for SUV(max) (P=0.0003 and 0.048, respectively). There were marginally significant differences between TLG and MTV in relation to p-stage (P=0.058).

TLG may reflect tumor metabolism for clinicopathological factors of breast cancer better than SUV(max) or MTV.