Association between the Preoperative Standard Uptake Value

• Published in: Cancers 2023-11, Vol.15 (22)
• Main Authors: Aboukheir Aboukheir, Aihab, Villanueva, Emilio Q, Garrett, Joseph R, Moodie, Carla C, Tew, Jenna R, Toloza, Eric M, Fontaine, Jacques P, Baldonado, Jobelle J. A. R
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cancer; Health aspects; Lung cancer, Non-small cell; Lung cancer, Small cell; Mortality; Oncology, Experimental; Sport-utility vehicles
• ISSN: 2072-6694; 2072-6694
• DOI: 10.3390/cancers15225379

Early-stage lung cancers are best treated with lung resections such as segmentectomy. Despite curative lung resections, however, lung cancers can recur. In our study we present our outcomes for robotic segmentectomy performed for lung cancer and how outcomes could be related to standard uptake value (SUV) as reported in the patients’ PET CT scan. We show here that robotic segmentectomy is safe and feasible for early-stage lung cancer, however recurrence was 28.4%. A higher preoperative SUV was associated with worse pathology outcomes and higher recurrence. A higher preoperative SUV was also associated with better long-term survival outcomes. Background: Lung-sparing procedures, specifically segmentectomies and wedge resections, have increased over the years to treat early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We investigate here the perioperative and long-term outcomes of patients who underwent robotic-assisted segmentectomy (RAS) at an NCI-designated cancer center and aim to show associations between the preoperative standard update value (SUV) to tumor stage, recurrence patterns, and overall survival. Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on 166 consecutive patients who underwent RAS at a single institution from 2010 to 2021. Of this number, 121 robotic-assisted segmentectomies were performed for primary NSCLC, and a total of 101 patients were evaluated with a PET-CT scan. The SUV from the primary tumor was determined from the PET-CT. The clinical, surgical, and pathologic profiles and perioperative outcomes were summarized via descriptive statistics. Numerical variables were described as the median and interquartile range because all numerical variables were not normally distributed as assessed by the Shapiro–Wilk test of normality. Categorical variables were described as the count and proportion. Chi-square or Fisher’s exact test was used for association. The main outcomes were overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS). Kaplan–Meier (KM) curves were constructed to visualize the OS and RFS, which were also stratified according to tumor histology, the pathologic stage, and standard uptake value. A log-rank test for the equality of survival curves was performed to determine significant differences between groups. Results: The most common postoperative complications were atrial fibrillation (8.8%, 9/102), persistent air leak (7.84%, 8/102), and pneumonia (4.9%, 5/102). The median operative duration was 168.5 min (IQR 59), while