Significance of baseline FDG-PET/CT scan as a method of staging regional lymph nodes in patients with operable distal oesophageal or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma

AbstractBackground: The new American Joint Committee on Cancer eighth edition (AJCC8) staging is the first to describe separate clinical and pathology staging systems, but still has low performance to predict prognosis in patients with oesophageal/gastroesophageal junction (O/GOJ) adenocarcinoma, who are candidates for surgery. Recent studies have demonstrated that O/GOJ cancer patients with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) avid regional lymph nodes (RLNs) may have poor prognosis. The aim of our study was to examine whether the baseline assessment of the FDG uptake of RLN improves the prognostic accuracy of the new AJCC8 staging.Patients and methods: This single-centre retrospective study included patients with operable FDG avid O/GOJ adenocarcinoma treated with perioperative chemotherapy. All patients were reclassified according to the new AJCC8 clinical staging. Prognostic factors for time-to-progression (TTP) and overall survival (OS) were explored.Results: Of 430 patients included in the study, 180 (41.9%...