01-11-2017 | Oncology
Evaluation of renal cell carcinoma histological subtype and fuhrman grade using 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography
Published in: European Radiology | Issue 11/2017
Login to get accessAbstract
Objectives
We evaluated 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake by renal cell carcinomas (RCCs) to determine whether different histological subtypes and Fuhrman grades can be distinguished.
Methods
We retrospectively reviewed the records and maximum standardised uptake value (SUVmax) of 147 patients with 154 RCCs who underwent FDG-positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) prior to tumour resection.
Results
The SUVmax was significantly lower in chromophobe RCC (chRCC) tumours than in clear cell RCC (ccRCC; p = 0.003) and papillary RCC (pRCC; p = 0.034) tumours. The mean tumour SUVmax was 4.58 ± 4.1 (range, 1.29–30.4) for ccRCC, 3.98 ± 1.9 (range, 0.49–6.72) for pRCC, and 1.93 ± 0.9 (range, 0.89–3.41) for chRCC. The SUVmax was not significantly different between the ccRCC and pRCC groups. In ccRCC and pRCC tumours, high-grade tumours had a significantly greater SUVmax (p < 0.001 and p < 0.05) than low-grade tumours by analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the Mann-Whitney U test. In ccRCC, multivariate regression analysis indicated that the SUVmax was a significant indicator of Fuhrman grade. No significant differences in uptake were observed between high- and low-grade chRCC tumours.
Conclusions
The SUVmax obtained using FDG-PET/CT may be an important indicator for predicting tumour grade in ccRCC and pRCC.
Key Points
• FDG accumulation reflects tumour aggressiveness and correlates with Fuhrman grade.
• FDG-PET/CT enables the differentiation of high- and low-grade ccRCC and pRCCs.
• FDG-PET/CT may valuable in the identification of some high-grade RCCs.