Correlation of high 18F-FDG uptake to clinical, pathological and biological prognostic factors in breast cancer

• Published in: European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging 2011-03, Vol.38 (3), p.426-435
• Main Authors: Groheux, David, Giacchetti, Sylvie, Moretti, Jean-Luc, Porcher, Raphael, Espié, Marc, Lehmann-Che, Jacqueline, de Roquancourt, Anne, Hamy, Anne-Sophie, Cuvier, Caroline, Vercellino, Laetitia, Hindié, Elif
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Biological Transport; Breast Neoplasms - diagnosis; Breast Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging; Breast Neoplasms - metabolism; Breast Neoplasms - pathology; Cardiology; Female; Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 - metabolism; Humans; Imaging; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Nuclear Medicine; Oncology; Original Article; Orthopedics; Prognosis; Radiology; Radionuclide Imaging; Tumor Burden; Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 - metabolism
• ISSN: 1619-7070; 1619-7089
• DOI: 10.1007/s00259-010-1640-9

Purpose The aim of this study was to determine the impact of the main clinicopathological and biological prognostic factors of breast cancer on 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake. Only women with tumours larger than 20 mm (T2–T4) were included in order to minimize bias of partial volume effect. Methods In this prospective study, 132 consecutive women received FDG PET/CT imaging before starting neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Maximum standardized uptake values (SUV max ) were compared to tumour characteristics as assessed on core biopsy. Results There was no influence of T and N stage on SUV. Invasive ductal carcinoma showed higher SUV than lobular carcinoma. However, the highest uptake was found for metaplastic tumours, representing 5% of patients in this series. Several biological features usually considered as bad prognostic factors were associated with an increase in FDG uptake: the median of SUV max was 9.7 for grade 3 tumours vs 4.8 for the lower grades ( p