Pretreatment (18)F‐FDG uptake heterogeneity may predict treatment outcome of combined Trastuzumab and Pertuzumab therapy in patients with metastatic HER2 positive breast cancer

OBJECTIVE: Intra-tumoral heterogeneity of (18)F‐fluorodeoxyglucose ((18)F‐FDG) uptake has been proven to be a surrogate marker for predicting treatment outcome in various tumors. However, the value of intra-tumoral heterogeneity in metastatic Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2(HER2) positive breast cancer (MHBC) remains unknown. The aim of this study was to evaluate (18)F‐FDG uptake heterogeneity to predict the treatment outcome of the dual target therapy with Trastuzumab and Pertuzumab(TP) in MHBC. METHODS: Thirty-two patients with MHBC who underwent (18)F-FDG positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) scan before TP were enrolled retrospectively. The region of interesting (ROI) of the lesions were drawn, and maximum standard uptake value (SUVmax), mean standard uptake value (SUVmean), total lesion glycolysis (TLG), metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and heterogeneity index (HI) were recorded. Correlation between PET/CT parameters and the treatment outcome was analyzed by Spearman Rank Test. The ability to predict prognosis were determined by time‐dependent survival receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. And the survival analyses were then estimated by Kaplan‐Meier method and compared by log‐rank test. RESULTS: The survival analysis showed that HI(50%) calculated by delineating the lesion with 50%SUVmax as threshold was a significant predictor of patients with MHBC treated by the treatment with TP. Patients with HI(50%) (≥ 1.571) had a significantly worse prognosis of progression free survival (PFS) (6.87 vs. Not Reach, p = 0.001). The area under curve (AUC), the sensitivity and the specificity were 0.88, 100% and 63.6% for PFS, respectively. CONCLUSION: (18)F-FDG uptake heterogeneity may be useful for predicting the prognosis of MHBC patients treated by TP. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40644-023-00608-0.