The predictive value of pre-treatment ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT on treatment outcome in early-stage extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma

Abstract

The diagnostic value of pretreatment ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT in early-stage extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma (ENKTL) is established, but its prognostic value is still unclear. We conducted ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT-based quantitative and qualitative analysis as well as assessed related clinical parameters in 50 patients with recently diagnosed ENKTL and treated with methotrexate, etoposide, dexamethasone, and pegaspargase (MESA)-based therapy. Patients were followed-up for 38.6 ± 17.8 months. Six patients died of tumor-related disease, and six patients presented with persistence or recurrence. The estimates of the 2-year OS and PFS for the patients were 90.0% (SE: 4.0%) and 82.0% (SE: 5.0%), respectively. Survival curves were obtained using Kaplan–Meier analysis and compared using log rank test. Based on signifiacnt results of univariate analysis, we selected Epstein–Barr virus DNA (EB-DNA), metabolic tumor volume (MTV), and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) for multivariate analysis. Finally, MTV was found to be the significant independent predictor of both OS (p = .038) and PFS (p = .039).

Keywords:

• ENKTL
• prognosis
• ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT
• early-stage

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge all the patients who were included in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the three-year planning of the Shanghai Shen-Kang Promoting Hospital’s Clinical Skills and Innovative Ability Project [16CR3110B] and Shanghai Municipal Key Clinical Specialty [shslczdzk03403].