The Incremental Prognostic Value of Baseline ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT Imaging in Angioimmunoblastic T-Cell Lymphoma

From January 2010 to October 2019, a total of 23 patients who pathologically confirmed to have AITL were retrospectively analyzed. All patients underwent whole-body ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT scan before chemotherapy. The ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT features, clinical data, laboratory indicators, Ki67 labeling index, and survival status were collected and analyzed.

The median follow-up was 22 months. The expected 1-, 2-, and 3-year survival rate was 72.2%, 49.6%, and 42.5%, respectively. The median overall survival (OS) was 23 months (95% confidence interval (CI): 8.459~37.541). AITL is prone to extranodal infiltration, in addition to nodal infiltration (6 patients had nodal infiltration alone, and 17 patients had both nodal and extranodal infiltration). The SUV_max of nodal lesions were higher than that for the extranodal lesions (10.43 ± 4.45, 6.64 ± 3.51, F = 2.78, t = 4.39, P < 0.01). On multivariate survival analysis, the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) and SUV_max of extranodal lesions were independent predictors of OS.

Baseline ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT results and SUV_max of extranodal lesions showed an incremental prognostic value in addition to clinical prognostic factors.