Can Simplified Screening Methods Accurately Indicate Pathology in NSCLC?
Posted: Thursday, August 9, 2018
The simplified maximum standard uptake value, developed by Yuichiro Takeda, MD, PhD, and colleagues at the National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Tokyo, quantifies colors from F-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG-PET/CT) into a finite value and may help clinicians plan therapeutic strategies for patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). When the investigators screened regional lymph nodes for pathologic malignancy, the results with the simplified tool were comparable to those with the maximum standard uptake value calculated by a workstation.
“The maximum standard uptake value on FDG-PET/CT of lung mass or of regional lymph nodes has been shown to correlate to the pathology. However, [it] is a precise analysis and sometimes needs access to the workstation of a PET/CT imaging master program,” the authors stated in Medicine. “Thoracic clinicians need more simplified access and easier indicators to decide on therapeutic strategies and to monitor imaging findings.”
The retrospective analysis included 69 patients with NSCLC. The study assigned three thoracic clinicians to determine the simplified mean standard uptake value from PET images and the diameter of regional lymph nodes from contrast-enhanced CT. The more precise approach was determined by the consensus between one clinician and one specialist in nuclear medicine.
Overall, 316 regional lymph nodes were pathologically evaluated: 27 nodes were positive for malignancy and 289 nodes were negative. The simplified tool achieved 84.5% accuracy measuring regional lymph nodes greater than 2.42—results comparable to previous reports.