Early Prediction of Response to Chemotherapy in Metastatic Breast Cancer Using Sequential 18F-FDG PET

Journal of Nuclear Medicine

Norbert Avril¹  Michael Bader¹  Joerg Dose Schwarz¹  Fritz Jänicke¹  Gabriele Hemminger¹  Lars Jenicke¹ 

关键词: ¹⁸F-FDG;    PET;    metastases;    breast cancer;    prediction of response to therapy;   

DOI  :  

学科分类：医学（综合）

来源: Society of Nuclear Medicine

【 摘 要 】

Chemotherapy is currently the treatment of choice for patients with high-risk metastatic breast cancer. Clinical response is determined after several cycles of chemotherapy by changes in tumor size as assessed by conventional imaging procedures including CT, MRI, plain film radiography, or ultrasound. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of sequential 18F-FDG PET to predict response after the first and second cycles of standardized chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer. Methods: Eleven patients with 26 metastatic lesions underwent 31 18F-FDG PET examinations (240–400 MBq of 18F-FDG; 10-min 2-dimensional emission and transmission scans). Clinical response, as assessed by conventional imaging after completion of chemotherapy, served as the reference. 18F-FDG PET images after the first and second cycles of chemotherapy were analyzed semiquantitatively for each metastatic lesion using standardized uptake values (SUVs) normalized to patients’ blood glucose levels. In addition, whole-body 18F-FDG PET images were viewed for overall changes in the 18F-FDG uptake pattern of metastatic lesions within individual patients and compared with conventional imaging results after the third and sixth cycles of chemotherapy. Results: After completion of chemotherapy, 17 metastatic lesions responded, as assessed by conventional imaging procedures. In those lesions, SUV decreased to 72% ± 21% after the first cycle and 54% ± 16% after the second cycle, when compared with the baseline PET scan. In contrast, 18F-FDG uptake in lesions not responding to chemotherapy (n = 9) declined only to 94% ± 19% after the first cycle and 79% ± 9% after the second cycle. The differences between responding and nonresponding lesions were statistically significant after the first (P = 0.02) and second (P = 0.003) cycles. Visual analysis of 18F-FDG PET images correctly predicted the response in all patients as early as after the first cycle of chemotherapy. As assessed by 18F-FDG PET, the overall survival in nonresponders (n = 5) was 8.8 mo, compared with 19.2 mo in responders (n = 6). Conclusion: In patients with metastatic breast cancer, sequential 18F-FDG PET allowed prediction of response to treatment after the first cycle of chemotherapy. The use of 18F-FDG PET as a surrogate endpoint for monitoring therapy response offers improved patient care by individualizing treatment and avoiding ineffective chemotherapy.

【 授权许可】

Unknown