Primary Application of PET-CT for Assessing Prognosis in Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer

Objective: To evaluate the role of 18F-FDG PET-CT for assessing prognosis in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: Twenty -nine patients with advanced NSCLC received PET -CT scan before and after conventional radiotherapy. All of the patients were followed clinically and radiographically in 12 months for assessment of local control or failure. For each scan, SUVmax and longest diameters were measured to analyze the correlation of prognosis. Results: One year local control rate of all patients was 69.0%. There was a significant reduction in both SUVmax and the longest diameters of primary tumor after radiotherapy (P 0.01). Using criteria from EORTC and RECIST, the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy by SUVmax were 90%, 77.8% and 86.2% versus the corresponding values of 60.0%, 55.6% and 58.6% by longest diameters, respectively. There was a significant change in sensitivity and accuracy. Conclusion: PET-CT is more sensitive in assessing prognosis of NSCLC than CT alone.