The Predictive Value of Proportional Evaluation Based on the Metabolic Activity of Cervical Lymph Nodes on PET/CT Imaging in Patients with Larynx Cancer.

OBJECTIVES

We aimed to evaluate the proportional values of maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) for cervical lymph nodes on 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) for prediction of the presence of metastasis in patients with larynx squamous cell cancer (LSCC).

METHODS

This retrospective study involved 43 patients with LSCC. All patients underwent resection of the primary tumor and neck dissection within 4 weeks after undergoing 18F-FDG PET/CT examinations. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to evaluate the lymph node SUVmax/primary tumor SUVmax (SUVmaxLN/SUVmaxPT), lymph node SUVmax/aortic SUVmax (SUVmaxLN/SUVmaxA), and lymph node SUVmax/ liver SUVmax (SUVmaxLN/SUVmaxL) ratios for diagnosis of lymph node metastasis.

RESULTS

SUVmaxLN/SUVmaxA, SUVmaxLN/SUVmaxL, and SUVmaxLN/SUVmaxPT rates were significantly higher in metastatic lymph nodes compared to non-metastatic nodes. ROC analysis for metastasis showed that the cut-off thresholds were 3.87 for SUVmaxLN; 1.78 for SUVmaxLN /SUVmaxA; 1.08 for SUVmaxLN/SUVmaxL; and 0.36 for SUVmaxLN/SUVmaxPT. The diagnostic sensitivity, specificity and AUC were 83.7%, 77%, 0.856 for SUVmaxLN; 79.7%, 84%, 1.78 for SUVmaxLN/SUVmaxA; 84.1%, 76%, 0.833 for SUVmaxLN/SUVmaxL; and 53.6%, 76%, 0.666 for SUVmaxLN/SUVmaxPT, respectively.

CONCLUSION

SUVmaxLN/SUVmaxA, SUVmaxLN/SUVmaxL, and SUVmaxLN/SUVmaxPT ratios can be safely used for diagnosis of cervical lymph node metastasis in patients with LSCC.