Prognostic significance of novel ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT defined tumour variables in patients with oesophageal cancer.

Purpose: (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose ((18)F-FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) combined with computed tomography (PET/CT) is now established as a routine staging investigation of oesophageal cancer (OC). The aim of the study was to determine the prognostic significance of PET/CT defined tumour variables including maximum standardised uptake value (SUVmax), tumour length (TL), metastatic length of disease (MLoD), metabolic tumour volume (MTV), total lesion glycolysis (TLG) and total local nodal metastasis count (PET/CT LNMC).

Materials And Methods: 103 pre-treatment OC patients (76 adenocarcinoma, 25 squamous cell carcinoma, 1 poorly differentiated and 1 neuroendocrine tumour) were staged using PET/CT.