(18)F-alfatide PET/CT may predict short-term outcome of concurrent chemoradiotherapy in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer

PURPOSE: The study aims to investigate the role of (18)F-alfatide positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) in predicting the short-term outcome of concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). METHODS: Eighteen patients with advanced NSCLC had undergone (18)F-alfatide PET/CT scans before CCRT and PET/CT parameters including maximum and mean standard uptake values (SUV(max)/SUV(mean)), peak standard uptake values (SUV(peak)) and tumor volume (TV(PET) and TV(CT)) were obtained. The SUV(max) of tumor and normal tissues (lung, blood pool and muscle) were measured, and their ratios were denoted as T/NT (T/NT(lung), T/NT(blood) and T/NT(muscle)). Statistical methods included the Two-example t test, Wilcoxon rank-sum test, Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: We found that SUV(max), SUV(peak), T/NT(lung), T/NT(blood) and T/NT(muscle) were higher in non-responders than in responders (P = 0.0024, P = 0.016, P < 0.001, P = 0.003, P = 0.004). According to ROC curve analysis, the thresholds of SUV(max), SUV(peak), T/NT(lung), T/NT(blood) and T/NT(muscle) were 5.65, 4.46, 7.11, 5.41, and 11.75, respectively. The five parameters had high sensitivity, specificity and accuracy in distinguishing non-responders and responders. Multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that T/NT(lung) was an independent predictor of the short-term outcome of CCRT in patients with advanced NSCLC (P = 0.032). CONCLUSIONS: (18)F-alfatide PET/CT may be useful in predicting the short-term outcome of CCRT in patients with advanced NSCLC.