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European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging

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01-10-2015 | Original Article

Do clinical, histological or immunohistochemical primary tumour characteristics translate into different ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT volumetric and heterogeneity features in stage II/III breast cancer?

Authors: David Groheux, Mohamed Majdoub, Florent Tixier, Catherine Cheze Le Rest, Antoine Martineau, Pascal Merlet, Marc Espié, Anne de Roquancourt, Elif Hindié, Mathieu Hatt, Dimitris Visvikis

Published in: European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging | Issue 11/2015

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this retrospective study was to determine if some features of baseline ¹⁸F-FDG PET images, including volume and heterogeneity, reflect clinical, histological or immunohistochemical characteristics in patients with stage II or III breast cancer (BC).

Methods

Included in the present retrospective analysis were 171 prospectively recruited patients with stage II/III BC treated consecutively at Saint-Louis hospital. Primary tumour volumes were semiautomatically delineated on pretreatment ¹⁸F-FDG PET images. The parameters extracted included SUV_max, SUV_mean, metabolically active tumour volume (MATV), total lesion glycolysis (TLG) and heterogeneity quantified using the area under the curve of the cumulative histogram and textural features. Associations between clinical/histopathological characteristics and ¹⁸F-FDG PET features were assessed using one-way analysis of variance. Areas under the ROC curves (AUC) were used to quantify the discriminative power of the features significantly associated with clinical/histopathological characteristics.

Results

T3 tumours (>5 cm) exhibited higher textural heterogeneity in ¹⁸F-FDG uptake than T2 tumours (AUC <0.75), whereas there were no significant differences in SUV_max and SUV_mean. Invasive ductal carcinoma showed higher SUV_max values than invasive lobular carcinoma (p = 0.008) but MATV, TLG and textural features were not discriminative. Grade 3 tumours had higher FDG uptake (AUC 0.779 for SUV_max and 0.694 for TLG), and exhibited slightly higher regional heterogeneity (AUC 0.624). Hormone receptor-negative tumours had higher SUV values than oestrogen receptor-positive (ER-positive) and progesterone receptor-positive tumours, while heterogeneity patterns showed only low-level variation according to hormone receptor expression. HER-2 status was not associated with any of the image features. Finally, SUV_max, SUV_mean and TLG significantly differed among the three phenotype subgroups (HER2-positive, triple-negative and ER-positive/HER2-negative BCs), but MATV and heterogeneity metrics were not discriminative.

Conclusion

SUV parameters, MATV and textural features showed limited correlations with clinical and histopathological features. The three main BC subgroups differed in terms of SUVs and TLG but not in terms of MATV and heterogeneity. None of the PET-derived metrics offered high discriminative power.

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Title: Do clinical, histological or immunohistochemical primary tumour characteristics translate into different 18F-FDG PET/CT volumetric and heterogeneity features in stage II/III breast cancer?
Authors: David Groheux
Mohamed Majdoub
Florent Tixier
Catherine Cheze Le Rest
Antoine Martineau
Pascal Merlet
Marc Espié
Anne de Roquancourt
Elif Hindié
Mathieu Hatt
Dimitris Visvikis
Publication date: 01-10-2015
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in: European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging / Issue 11/2015
Print ISSN: 1619-7070
Electronic ISSN: 1619-7089
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-015-3110-x

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Do clinical, histological or immunohistochemical primary tumour characteristics translate into different ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT volumetric and heterogeneity features in stage II/III breast cancer?

Abstract

Purpose

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

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Abstract

Purpose

Methods

Results

Conclusion

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