Preoperative 18[F]-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography predicts early recurrence after pancreatic cancer resection.

Background: An important step in deciding the treatment strategy for pancreatic cancer is to preoperatively predict the possibility of early recurrence. We reviewed whether 18[F]-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG-PET/CT) before pancreatic cancer resection could predict tumor recurrence in the early postoperative period.

Methods: FDG-PET/CT was performed preoperatively on 56 patients with pancreatic cancer. The maximum standardized uptake (SUV(max)) values obtained by FDG-PET/CT were compared between two groups: patients with and without recurrence within the first 6 postoperative months. SUV(max) analyses were also performed to determine whether age, sex, CA 19-9 values, the operative method, and portal vein resection were also predictive of recurrence within less than 6 months after tumor resection.

Results: The median SUV(max) values of the recurrence group and no-recurrence group were 7.9 and 4.2, respectively (P = 0.0042). The SUV(max) was the only risk factor for recurrence in the first 6 postoperative months identified by multivariate analysis (P = 0.0062).

Conclusions: Preoperative SUV(max) was higher in the recurrence group during the early postoperative period, and a high SUV(max) was a risk factor for early postoperative recurrence. Based on these results, we conclude that FDG-PET/CT is predictive of the recurrence of pancreatic cancer in the early postoperative period.