ABSTRACT
@#[Abstract] Objective: To investigate the relationship between 18F-FDG PET/CT metabolic indicators and expression of immunocyte markers in lung adenocarcinoma patients, and to explore its significance in treatment and prognosis prediction for lung adenocarcinoma patients.Methods:Theclinicaldataof85lungadenocarcinomapatients,whoadmittedtoTianjinMedicalUniversityCancerInstituteand Hospital and underwent PET/CT examination from April 2008 to August 2014, were retrospectively analyzed. The expression levels of CD3, CD8, CD68, CD163, CD11c, Foxp3, PD-1 and PD-L1 were determined by immunohistochemistry. Correlations among immune markers (CD68+TAM), PET/CT metabolic parameters (SUVmax, SUVpeak and SUVmean) and tumor metabolic indicators (MTV , TLG) were analyzed using Pearson correlation analysis.The relationships between tumor metabolism, immune indicators and patients’survival outcomes were analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method. Results: There was a remarkably negative correlation between SUVmax, SUVpeak, SUVmean and expression level of CD68+TAMs(r=-0.253,-0.265,-0.263,allP<0.05)butpositivecorrelationwithPD-1+TILs (r=0.427, 0.402, 0.395, all P<0.01) in lung adenocarcinoma patients. MTV and TLG were positively associated with Foxp3+ Tregs and PD-1+ TILs (r=0.313, 0.307, 0.29, 0.407, all P<0.01). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that SUVmax, SUVmean, CD11c+DCs, PD-L1+ cells and TLG were all significantly associated with patients’prognosis (PFS or OS) (all P<0.05). Conclusion: Metabolism of tumor primary lesions is significantly correlated with tumor infiltrating immunocytes, and some of these indicators were associatedwithpatients’prognosis, suggesting that tumor metabolism and microenvironment immune status reflected by 18F-FDG PET/CTindicatorsmay have important reference value fortheimmunotherapyandprognosispredictionoflungadenocarcinoma patients.