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Abstract
INTRODUCTION:
We hypothesized that, in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with N1 metastasis, N1 nodal 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) status offers independent and incremental prognostic value.

METHODS:
We enrolled 106 NSCLC patients with pathology-confirmed N1 metastasis. N1 node FDG positivity, primary tumor maximum standard uptake value (SUVmax), metabolic tumor volume (MTV), and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) were measured. Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression analyses were performed for cancer-specific survival (CSS) and disease-free survival (DFS).

RESULTS:
Subjects were 67 males and 39 females (61.9 ± 9.4 years). Eighty-one (76.4%) and 25 (23.6%) had pathologic stage IIB and IIIA NSCLC, respectively. All underwent complete tumor resection. FDG-positive N1 nodes were larger and had higher primary tumor SUVmax. During a follow-up of 42 months, there were 56 recurrences and 31 cancer deaths. Significant univariate predictors were stage, no adjuvant therapy, and FDG-positive nodes for DFS, and stage, no adjuvant therapy, node size, tumor MTV, TLG, and SUVmax, and FDG-positive nodes for CSS. Independent predictors on multivariate analyses were FDG-positive nodes (HR = 3.071, p = 0.003), greater tumor TLG (HR = 3.224, p = 0.002), and no adjuvant therapy (HR = 3.631, p < 0.001) for poor CSS, and FDG-positive nodes (HR = 1.771, p = 0.040) and no adjuvant therapy (HR = 2.666, p = 0.002) for poor DFS. Harrell's concordance and net reclassification improvement tests showed that CSS prediction was significantly improved by the addition of N1 FDG status to a model containing tumor TLG.

CONCLUSION:
N1 node FDG status can be useful for predicting the outcome of NSCLC patients with N1 metastasis beyond that provided by other prognostic variables.

Author information

Lim CH1, Hyun SH1, Moon SH1, Cho YS1, Choi JY1, Lee KH2.
1
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, 81 Irwon-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, 06351, South Korea.
2
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, 81 Irwon-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, 06351, South Korea. khnm.lee@samsung.com.