The prognostic role of whole-body volumetric positron emission tomography/computed tomography parameters in treatment naive colorectal cancer patients with liver metastases.

Purpose: The present study aimed to predict the prognostic role of quantitative 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET/computed tomography parameters such as maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax), metabolic tumor volume (MTV), and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) obtained from primary tumor, lymph node metastases, and liver metastasis (LM) in patients with colorectal LM (CLM).

Material and method: The research was designed as a retrospective study and 66 patients with CLM were enrolled between January 2017 and December 2018. Primary tumor SUVmax (PSUVmax), liver SUVmax (LSUVmax), and lymph node SUVmax (LnSUVmax) values obtained from the primary tumor, liver, and lymph nodes were recorded. In addition, total MTV (TMTV) and total TLG (TTLG) values were obtained by summing the values obtained from the primary tumor (PMTV and PTLG), lymph nodes (LnMTV and LnTLG), and liver (LMTV and LTLG). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis was used to measure the effects of prognostic variables on mortality and survival.

Result: In univariate Cox regression analysis, PMTV (P = 0.001), LnMTV (P = 0.008), LnTLG (P = 0.008), LnSUVmax (P = 0.047), and TTLG (P = 0.038) were identified as prognostic factors for overall survival. No statistically significant relationship was found between MTV and TLG values of LM and overall survival. In multivariate analysis, PMTV (P = 0.022) was identified as an independent prognostic factor.

Conclusion: In conclusion, our study demonstrated that the PMTV value used in evaluating treatment-naive patients diagnosed with CLM is an independent prognostic factor for survival. Our results need to be confirmed with more studies involving more patients.