Value of pretreatment ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT in predicting progression-free survival of patients with nonmycosis fungoides/Sézary syndrome primary cutaneous lymphomas

Objectives: To analyze the value of pretreatment PET/CT for predicting disease progression or death in non-MF/SS CML patients.

Methods: The following clinical information was collected and analyzed for all patients: pretreatment maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax); age; lymphoma type; skin lesion location, morphology, and range; treatment method; presence of B symptoms; mammary lactic dehydrogenase level; β-microglobulin level; Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (ECOG PS) score; international prognostic index score; lymph node infiltration; bone infiltration; extranodal lesion location; and survival time. The correlation between relevant prognostic factors and progression-free survival (PFS) was analyzed using the Cox regression model.

Results: The Kaplan-Meier analysis results showed that the PFS for 30 patients was 24.592±4.507 months (95% confidence interval [CI]: 15.759, 33.425). The Cox regression model showed that the PFS of SUVmax-negative patients was longer than that of SUVmax-positive patients (p=0.028 and Exp [B]=6.188). The Cox analysis results showed that pretreatment SUVmax, skin lesion range, skin lesion location, treatment method, presence of B symptoms, ECOG score, and lymph node infiltration were prognosis-related factors.

Conclusions: Pretreatment PET/CT had a strong prognostic value in predicting the disease progression and death of non-MF/SS CML patients. In addition, the PFS of pretreatment SUVmax-positive patients was shorter than that of SUVmax-negative patients.