The impact of intratumoral metabolic heterogeneity on postoperative recurrence and survival in resectable esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of intratumoral metabolic heterogeneity measured by 18F-FDG PET imaging on postoperative recurrence and survival for patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). RESULTS: AUC-CSH, metabolic tumor volume and pN-stage were significant prognostic factors for RFS. Additionally, tumor recurrence of the low AUC-CSH group (≤ 0.478) was 3 times higher than high group (P = 0.015). The median OS of patients with advanced AJCC stage or low AUC-CSH was also significantly shorter than that of patients with stage I & II or high AUC-CSH (P = 0.021, 0.009). Multivariate analysis identified the AUC-CSH to be the only significant risk factor for postoperative recurrence and overall survival in whole-group and stage III patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 116 ESCC patients who underwent staging 18F-FDG PET-CT scan and surgical resection were reviewed. The metabolic parameters were assessed as follows: maximum standardized uptake value (SUV(max)), metabolic tumor volume, and the area under the curve of the cumulative SUV-volume histogram (AUC-CSH), which is known to reflect the intratumoral metabolic heterogeneity. Regression analyses were used to identify clinicopathological and imaging variables associated with relapse-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS). CONCLUSIONS: Intratumoral metabolic heterogeneity characterized by AUC-CSH can predict postoperative recurrence and survival in patients with resectable ESCC.