방사선의학 웹진

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Abstract
Background: High levels of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) tumor uptake are associated with worse prognosis in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Meanwhile, high levels of immune cell infiltration in primary tumor have been linked to better prognosis in NSCLC. We conducted this study for precisely stratified prognosis of the lung adenocarcinoma patients using the integration of 18F-FDG positron emission tomography (PET) parameters and infiltrating immune cell scores as assessed by a genomic analysis.

Results: Using an RNA sequencing dataset, the patients were divided into three subtype groups. Additionally, 24 different immune cell scores and cytolytic scores (CYT) were obtained. In 18F-FDG PET scans, PET parameters of the primary tumors were obtained. An ANOVA test, a Chi-square test and a correlation analysis were also conducted. A Kaplan-Meier survival analysis with the log-rank test and multivariable Cox regression test was performed to evaluate prognostic values of the parameters. The terminal respiratory unit (TRU) group demonstrated lower 18F-FDG PET parameters, more females, and lower stages than the other groups. Meanwhile, the proximal inflammatory (PI) group showed a significantly higher CYT score compared to the other groups (P = .001). Also, CYT showed a positive correlation with tumor-to-liver maximum standardized uptake value ratio (TLR) in the PI group (P = .027). A high TLR (P = .01) score of 18F-FDG PET parameters and a high T follicular helper cell (TFH) score (P = .005) of immune cell scores were associated with prognosis with opposite tendencies. Furthermore, TLR and TFH were predictive of overall survival even after adjusting for clinicopathologic features and others (P = .024 and .047).

Conclusions: A high TLR score was found to be associated with worse prognosis, while high CD8 T cell and TFH scores predicted better prognosis in lung adenocarcinoma. Furthermore, TLR and TFH can be used to predict prognosis independently in patients with lung adenocarcinoma.

Affiliations

Jinyeong Choi #  1 , Azmal Sarker #  2 , Hongyoon Choi  2 , Dong Soo Lee  2 , Hyung-Jun Im  3   4   5   6
1 Department of Applied Bioengineering, Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea.
2 Department of Nuclear Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
3 Department of Applied Bioengineering, Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea. iiihjjj@gmail.com.
4 Department of Molecular Medicine and Biopharmaceutical Sciences, Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea. iiihjjj@gmail.com.
5 Cancer Research Institute, Seoul National University, 03080, Seoul, Republic of Korea. iiihjjj@gmail.com.
6 Research Institute for Convergence Science, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea. iiihjjj@gmail.com.
# Contributed equally.