Positron-emission tomography-guided radiation therapy: Ongoing projects and future hopes.

Radiation therapy has undergone significant advances these last decades, particularly thanks to technical improvements, computer science and a better ability to define the target volumes via morphological and functional imaging breakthroughs. Imaging contributes to all three stages of patient care in radiation oncology: before, during and after treatment. Before the treatment, the choice of optimal imaging type and, if necessary, the adequate functional tracer will allow a better definition of the volume target.

Sub-cutaneous Fat Mass measured on multislice computed tomography of pretreatment PET/CT is a prognostic factor of stage IV non-small cell lung cancer treated by nivolumab.

: Our aim was to explore the prognostic value of anthropometric parameters in patients treated with nivolumab for stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). : We retrospectively included 55 patients with NSCLC treated by nivolumab with a pretreatment FDG positron emission tomography coupled with computed tomography (PET/CT). Anthropometric parameters were measured on the CT of PET/CT by in-house software (Anthropometer3D) allowing an automatic multi-slice measurement of Lean Body Mass (LBM), Fat Body Mass (FBM), Muscle Body Mass (MBM), Visceral Fat Mass (VFM) and Sub-cutaneous Fat Mass (SCFM).