Qualitative visual trichotomous assessment improves the value of fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography in predicting the prognosis of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

Cancer Communications

Wei Fan¹  Zhong-Jun Xia¹  Pei-Yan Liang¹  Ying-Ying Hu³  Yuan-Hua Li³  Xiao-Ping Lin³  Xu Zhang⁴  Zhi-Ming Li⁴  Ya-Rui Zhang⁴ 

[1] State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, P. R. China;Department of Medical Oncology, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, P. R. China;Department of Nuclear Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, P. R. China;Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center

关键词: Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma;    Positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT);    Prognosis;    The qualitative visual trichotomous assessment (QVTA) criteria;    The Deauville criteria;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s40880-015-0021-y

学科分类：肿瘤学

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

Fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (18 F-FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) is a powerful tool for monitoring the response of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) to therapy, but the criteria to interpret PET/CT results remain under debate. We investigated the value of post-treatment PET/CT in predicting the prognosis of DLBCL patients when interpreted according to qualitative visual trichotomous assessment (QVTA) criteria compared with the Deauville criteria. In this retrospective study, final PET/CT scans of DLBCL patients treated with rituximab-based regimens between October 2005 and November 2010 were interpreted using the Deauville and QVTA criteria. Survival curves were estimated using Kaplan-Meier analysis and compared using the log-rank test. A total of 253 patients were enrolled. The interpretation according to the Deauville criteria revealed that 181 patients had negative PET/CT scan results and 72 had positive results. The 3 year overall survival (OS) rate was significantly higher in patients with negative scan results than in those with positive results (91.6 % vs. 57.5 %, P < 0.001). The 72 patients with positive scan results according to the Deauville criteria were divided into two groups by the interpretation according to the QVTA criteria: 29 had indeterminate results, and 43 had positive results. The 3 year OS rate was significantly higher in patients with indeterminate scan results than in those with positive results (91.2 % vs. 33.5 %, P < 0.001) but was similar between patients with negative and indeterminate scan results (91.6 % vs. 91.2 %, P = 0.921). Compared with the Deauville criteria, using the QVTA criteria for interpreting post-treatment PET/CT scans of DLBCL patients is likely to reduce the number of false positive results. The QVTA criteria are feasible for therapeutic outcome evaluation and can be used to guide risk-adapted therapy.

【 授权许可】

CC BY