Exceptionally low metabolic activity in aggressive peripheral T-cell lymphoma.

PURPOSE: To investigate metabolic behavior of aggressive peripheral T-cell (PTC) lymphoma compared with other aggressive T-cell (OTC) nonHodgkin's lymphomas (NHLs) and the various grades (1, 2, 3) of follicular B-cell (FC) NHL as a reference cell type for indolent to aggressive behavior.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

Pretreatment 2-deoxy-2-[¹⁸F] fluoro-d-glucose positron emission tomography-computed tomography scans of 33 patients with pathologic diagnosis of aggressive T-cell NHL and FC (FC1 = 6, FC2 = 8, FC3 = 9, PTC = 6, OTC = 4) were analyzed. The maximal standardized uptake value (SUV) was measured over biopsy region (BxSUV) and the highest tumor activity of the body (BmSUV).

RESULTS

There were significant differences in both BxSUV (P = 0.036) and BmSUV (P = 0.026) among these five groups with significantly lower metabolic activity in PTC compared with other aggressive NHL (FC3, OTC). BmSUV in PTC was significantly lower than that in OTC (8.2 ± 2.5 vs. 22.3 ± 7.0, P = 0.029) and was similar to that of FC1 (9.4 ± 1.9) and FC2 (9.7 ± 1.4) but lower than that of FC3 (14.6 ± 2.7). Similar findings were noted in BxSUV between PTC and OTC (6.7 ± 2.5 vs. 20.4 ± 7.2, P = 0.035).

CONCLUSION

Although 2-deoxy-2-[¹⁸F]fluoro-d-glucose positron emission tomography has been found to reflect metabolic activity for the aggressiveness of B-cell NHL, PTC has an exceptionally low metabolic activity, similar to that of low-grade B-cell FC1 and FC2.