Prognostic value of pretreatment FDG PET in pediatric neuroblastoma

This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of pretreatment (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) in pediatric neuroblastoma patients.

The study included 50 pediatric neuroblastoma patients who underwent diagnostic work-up FDG PET before any treatment. The maximum standardized uptake value (SUV(max)) of the primary tumor lesion (P(max)), the SUV(max) of all the tumor lesions, including the primary tumor lesion and metastatic lesions (T(max)), and the uptake ratio of T(max) to mean SUV of normal liver tissue (T(max)/L(mean)) were calculated and tested as prognostic factors.

Of the 50 patients, 15 (30.0%) experienced disease progression and 21 (42.0%) died during the follow-up period. On univariate analysis, the histopathology, tumor stage, bone marrow involvement, serum levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), neuron-specific enolase, and ferritin, primary tumor size, P(max), T(max), and T(max)/L(mean) were significant prognostic factors for disease progression-free survival (PFS), whereas the tumor stage, serum level of LDH, T(max), and T(max)/L(mean) were determined to be significant for predicting overall survival (OS). On multivariate analysis, the histopathology and serum level of LDH were independent prognostic factors for PFS, and only the T(max)/L(mean) was an independent prognostic factor for OS. The 2-year PFS and OS rates were over 80.0% in patients with low FDG uptake, meanwhile, patients with high FDG uptake showed the 2-year PFS of less than 30.0% and OS of less than 55.0%.

FDG PET was an independent prognostic factor for OS in neuroblastoma patients. FDG PET can provide effective information on the prognosis for neuroblastoma patients.