Clinical usefulness of ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT to predict prognosis in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: Overall survival

Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate whether ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT can predict overall survival in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Methods Between Jan 2004 and Dec 2006, 70 patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma who underwent pretreatment ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT were enrolled. The overall survival was investigated and several prognostic factors were evaluated. The relationship between overall survival and SUVmax, and several factors including age, sex, T,N,M-classification, treatment, anatomic subsites was examined. The overall survival was analyzed by Kaplan-Meier method and Cox’s proportional hazard model.

Results At a median follow-up of 1052 days (range 58-2442), total survivors were 28. The patients with a tumor SUV < 9.8 survived longer than those with a higher SUV (p=0.001). T1, N0 staging and surgery group revealed longer survival (P=0.041, 0.030, 0.0003). On multivariate analysis, lower SUV tumor was demonstrated to be a significantly favorable factor for overall survival (p=0.010, HR 2.565, 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.254-5.247). Compare to non-surgery group, surgery group also showed favorable overall survival (p=0.047, HR 2.115, 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.013-4.418).

Conclusions Lower SUV and surgery as treatment were associated with improved survival. Therefore, ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT can predict prognosis in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma