Clinical significance of (18)F-FDG PET/CT imaging in 32 cases of gastrointestinal stromal tumors

OBJECTIVES: To explore the clinical significance of (18)F-FDG metabolic imaging in the diagnosis and biological risk assessment of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST). METHODS: This study is a clinical retrospective study. The research subjects were patients with GIST who were admitted to our hospital from January 2014 to December 2019 and underwent (18)F-FDG metabolic imaging, and the relationship between biological risk and FDG metabolism was analyzed retrospectively. RESULTS: A total of 32 patients with GIST were included in this study, of which 17 patients had very low and low-risk lesions, and the FDG metabolism level did not increase; five patients had moderate-risk gastric lesions, and the FDG metabolism level was abnormally increased; 10 patients had high-risk lesions, and except for one patient with multiple lesions, the FDG metabolism level of these patients was increased. CONCLUSIONS: The level of glucose metabolism is abnormally increased in tumor cells with vigorous mitosis and has higher biological risk. The (18)F-FDG metabolism level can determine the biological risk of GIST and whether high-risk lesions involve other tissues and organs, as it more comprehensively reflects the distribution of lesions, the activity of tumor cells and the stage of the disease.