Abstract
Early identification of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) who are likely to experience disease recurrence or refractory disease after rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP) would be useful for improving risk-adapted treatment strategies. We aimed to assess the prognostic value of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG-PET/CT) parameters at baseline, interim, and end of treatment (EOT). Methods: We analyzed the prognostic impact of FDG-PET/CT in 166 patients with DLBCL treated with a risk-adapted immunochemotherapy regimen. Scans were performed at baseline, after four cycles of R-CHOP or three cycles of RR-CHOP and one cycle of CHOP alone (interim) and six weeks after completing therapy (EOT). Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were estimated using Kaplan-Meier and the impact of clinical/PET factors assessed with Cox models. We also assessed the predictive ability of the recently proposed International Metabolic Prognostic Index (IMPI). Results: The median follow-up was 7.9 years. International Prognostic Index (IPI), baseline metabolic tumor volume (MTV), and change in maximum standardized uptake value (∆SUVmax) at interim scans were statistically significant predictors for OS. Baseline MTV, interim ∆SUVmax, and EOT Deauville score were statistically significant predictors of PFS. Combining interim PET parameters demonstrated that patients with Deauville 4-5 and positive ∆SUVmax ≤ 70% at restaging (approximately 10% of the cohort) had extremely poor prognosis. The IMPI had limited discrimination and slightly overestimated the event rate in our cohort. Conclusion: Baseline MTV and interim ∆SUVmax predicted both PFS and OS with this sequential immunochemotherapy program. Combining interim Deauville score with interim ∆SUVmax may identify an extremely high-risk DLBCL population.
- Hematology
- Oncology: Lymphoma
- PET/CT
- Deauville score
- FDG-PET/CT
- delta SUVmax
- diffuse large B-cell lymphoma
- metabolic tumor volume
- Copyright © 2022 by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Inc.