SUV – Oral Cancer News

FDG-PET staging and importance of lymph node SUV in head and neck cancer

Source: 7thspace.com Author: staff Objectives: The role of positron emission tomography (PET) with fluoro-deoxy-glucose (FDG) in the staging of head and neck cancer (HNC) is unclear. The NCCN guidelines do not recommend FDG-PET as a part of standard workup. The purpose of this report is to examine the role of FDG-PET imaging in altering management and providing prognostic information for HNC. Methods: Retrospective review of HNC patients who had a staging FDG-PET scan performed at either Thomas Jefferson University or University of Kansas Medical Center between the years 2001 and 2007. A total of 212 PET scans were performed in patients who went on to receive radiotherapy. Results: The median follow-up time for all patients was 469 days. The PPV and NPV of PET imaging to correctly identify lymph node status was 94% and 89% respectively. Lymph nodes with extracapsular extension (ECE) had higher SUVs than nodes without ECE, 11.0 vs. 5.0 (p <0.0007). Maximum SUV for the primary tumor >8.0 was predictive of worse overall survival (p <0.045), while the SUV of the lymph nodes was predictive for distant recurrence at one year--with a mean SUV value of 10.4 for patients with distant failure vs. 7.0 without (p <0.05). Conclusions: FDG-PET staging in head and neck cancer has good positive and negative predictive values in determining lymph node status. The maximum SUV of the primary tumor is predictive of overall survival. This is the first report to find that the SUV of a lymph node is predictive for ECE [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-07-18T06:52:58-07:00July, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Metabolic activity of head and neck cancer may help guide treatment

Source: www.oncologystat.com Author: Staff The metabolic activity of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma on pretreatment imaging independently predicts outcomes in patients who undergo intensity-modulated radiation therapy, new data show. This imaging information can be used to tailor treatment, especially to reduce the risk of distant metastases, lead investigator Dr. Min Yao said at a head and neck cancer symposium sponsored by the American Society for Radiation Oncology. Higher standardized uptake value (SUV) of the primary tumor and of the lymph nodes predicted worse outcomes in multivariate analyses presented by Dr. Yao, a radiation oncologist at the Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland. "Several papers have shown that the standardized uptake value (SUV) is a prognostic factor in head and neck cancer," Dr. Yao told attendees. Most of these studies were small series, involved patients receiving conventional radiation therapy, and did not evaluate SUV of the primary tumor and lymph nodes separately. Dr. Yao and his colleagues analyzed outcomes in 177 patients treated for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma with intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) between 1999 and 2006. The patients had a pretreatment positron emission tomography scan using fluorodeoxyglucose as the tracer (FDG-PET), and the maximal SUV was determined for both the primary tumor and the involved lymph nodes. The patients then underwent IMRT with curative intent. Seventy-seven percent of the patients were male. Twenty-nine percent were receiving IMRT postoperatively, whereas the rest were receiving it as definitive therapy. The cancer was most commonly located in the oropharynx (49%) and [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-04-18T10:24:49-07:00April, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Metabolic activity of head and neck cancer may help guide treatment

Source: www.oncologystat.com Author: Staff The metabolic activity of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma on pretreatment imaging independently predicts outcomes in patients who undergo intensity-modulated radiation therapy, new data show. This imaging information can be used to tailor treatment, especially to reduce the risk of distant metastases, lead investigator Dr. Min Yao said at a head and neck cancer symposium sponsored by the American Society for Radiation Oncology. Higher standardized uptake value (SUV) of the primary tumor and of the lymph nodes predicted worse outcomes in multivariate analyses presented by Dr. Yao, a radiation oncologist at the Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland. "Several papers have shown that the standardized uptake value (SUV) is a prognostic factor in head and neck cancer," Dr. Yao told attendees. Most of these studies were small series, involved patients receiving conventional radiation therapy, and did not evaluate SUV of the primary tumor and lymph nodes separately. Dr. Yao and his colleagues analyzed outcomes in 177 patients treated for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma with intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) between 1999 and 2006. The patients had a pretreatment positron emission tomography scan using fluorodeoxyglucose as the tracer (FDG-PET), and the maximal SUV was determined for both the primary tumor and the involved lymph nodes. The patients then underwent IMRT with curative intent. Seventy-seven percent of the patients were male. Twenty-nine percent were receiving IMRT postoperatively, whereas the rest were receiving it as definitive therapy. The cancer was most commonly located in the oropharynx (49%) and [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-03-18T08:51:12-07:00March, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Maximal standard uptake value predicted survival outcomes

Source: www.hemonctoday.com Author: Christen Haigh Maximal standardized uptake value measured from FDG PET readings from the primary tumor of patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck predicted disease-specific survival, overall survival (OS) and disease free survival (DFS). Additionally, pretreatment maximal standardized uptake value, or SUVmax, for lymphadenopathy was associated with distant metastasis, according to the findings of a study presented at the Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium in Chandler, Ariz. “FDG PET scan before treatment for head and neck cancer may help to guide future treatment of patients with high SUV in the tumor and node,” Min Yao, MD, PhD, radiation oncologist at University Hospitals Case Medical Center, Cleveland, said during a news briefing. Researchers conducted a retrospective study of 295 patients treated with intensity-modulated radiation therapy. There were 177 patients who had FDG PET pretreatment and had SUVmax for primary tumor and/or lymphadenopathy (SUV-LN). The three-year local recurrence-free survival rate was 95%; the regional recurrence-free survival rate was 95% and the local-regional recurrence-free survival rate was 92.6%. The three-year distant metastasis-free survival and disease-specific survival rates were both 78.8%. DFS was 63.95% and OS was 67.4%. Primary tumor SUVmax was significantly associated with DFS and OS. A strong association was noted for DFS as well, according to researchers. The three-year distant metastasis-free survival rate was 82.1% when SUV-LN was less than 11.3% and 63.4% when SUV-LN was greater than 11.3. “The findings of this study show that we may use SUV before treatment to personalize [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-03-01T19:08:50-07:00March, 2010|Oral Cancer News|