The combination of FDG PET and dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI improves the prediction of disease-free survival in patients with advanced breast cancer after the first cycle of neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to investigate the potential of FDG PET/CT and MRI in predicting disease-free survival (DFS) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) and surgery in patients with advanced breast cancer. METHODS: The analysis included 54 women with advanced breast cancer. All patients received three cycles of NAC, underwent curative surgery, and then received three cycles of additional chemotherapy. Before and after the first cycle of NAC, all patients underwent sequential PET/CT and MRI. All patients were analysed using a diverse range of parameters. including maximal standardized uptake value (SUV), percent change in SUV (ΔSUV), initial slope of the enhancement curve (MRslope), apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), tumour size, change in MRslope (ΔMRslope), change in ADC (ΔADC), change in tumour size (Δsize) and other clinicopathological parameters]. The relationships between covariates and DFS after surgery were analysed using the Kaplan-Meier method and the multivariate Cox proportional hazards model. Time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curves were used to determine the optimal cut-off values of imaging parameters for DFS. RESULTS: Of the 54 patients, 13 (24 %) experienced recurrence at a median follow-up of 38 months (range 25 - 45 months). Univariate and multivariate analyses showed that a lesser decline in SUV, a lesser decline in MRslope, a lesser increase in ADC, and ER negativity were significantly associated with a poorer DFS (P = 0.0006, ΔSUV threshold -41 %; P = 0.0016, ΔMRslope threshold -6 %; P = 0.011, ΔADC threshold 11 %; and P = 0.0086, ER status, respectively). Patients with a combination of ΔSUV >-41 % and ΔMRslope >-6 % showed a significantly higher recurrence rate (77.8 %) than the remaining of patients (13.3 %, P < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: Functional parameters of both FDG PET and MRI after the first cycle of NAC are useful for predicting DFS in patients with advanced breast cancer. This approach could lead to an improvement in patient care because ineffective NAC agents could be avoided and more aggressive therapy could be used in high-risk patients.

Prognostic Value of SUVmax Measured by Fluorine-18 Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography with Computed Tomography in Patients with Gallbladder Cancer.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to investigate the prognostic value of F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (F-18 FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) in gallbladder cancer patients. METHODS: From June 2004 to June 2010, a total of 50 patients with gallbladder cancer who underwent diagnostic staging with F-18 FDG PET/CT following curative or palliative treatments were retrospectively evaluated. For the analysis, all patients were classified by age, sex, maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax), lymph node (LN) or distant metastasis, serum level of CA19-9 and CEA, type of treatment and American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stage. RESULTS: The median survival for the 50 patients was 245 days and the median SUVmax in PET/CT was 8.3 (range, 0-19.7). Patients with SUVmax < 6 survived significantly longer than patients with SUVmax ≥ 6 (median 405 days vs 203 days, p = 0.0400). On Kaplan-Meier analysis, SUVmax (p = 0.0400), stage (p = 0.0001), CA19-9 (p = 0.013), CEA (p = 0.006), LN metastasis (p = 0.0001), distant metastasis (p = 0.0020), type of treatment (p = 0.0001) were significantly associated with overall survival. Multivariate analysis study revealed that the patients with lower SUVmax measured from initial staging PET/CT (p = 0.0380), no LN metastasis (p = 0.0260), a lower stage (p = 0.026) and curative treatment (p = 0.0005) had longer survivals. CONCLUSIONS: The present study shows that SUVmax on F-18 FDG PET/CT can provide prognostic information in patients with gallbladder cancer.