Clinicopathologic Characteristics and Results of HRCT and 18F-FDG PET/CT Evaluation in Patients Without and With PLC
| Variable | Without PLC, n = 25 | With PLC, n = 69 | P |
| Age (y) | 67 ± 10 | 66 ± 9 | 0.81 |
| Sex (M/F) | 18/7 | 49/20 | 0.57 |
| TNM stage | <0.001 | ||
| 1 | 16 | 13 | |
| 2 | 6 | 23 | |
| 3 | 2 | 32 | |
| 4 | 1 | 1 | |
| Surgery | 0.21 | ||
| Segmentectomy | 3 | 4 | |
| Lobectomy | 22 | 59 | |
| Pneumonectomy | 0 | 6 | |
| Histology | 0.081 | ||
| Adenocarcinoma | 19 | 36 | |
| Poorly differentiated NSCLC | 0 | 5 | |
| Squamous cell carcinoma | 6 | 28 | |
| HRCT | |||
| Smooth lines | 19 | 60 | 0.45 |
| Nodular lines | 3 | 13 | 0.62 |
| Peribronchovascular thickening | 4 | 46 | 0.0002 |
| Subpleural space | 3 | 4 | 0.64 |
| Satellite nodes | 6 | 12 | 0.61 |
| Enlarged lymph nodes | 7 | 44 | 0.0082 |
| Pleural effusion | 3 | 9 | 0.95 |
| Enlarged pulmonary veins | 4 | 4 | 0.44 |
| PET qualitative (peritumoral increased uptake) | 4 | 65 | 0.0001 |
| PET quantitative | |||
| Tumor SUVmax (g/mL) | 9.1 ± 7.1 | 14.1 ± 8.0 | 0.0031 |
| Tumor SUVmean (g/mL) | 5.5 ± 4.7 | 8.4 ± 5.1 | 0.0039 |
| MTV (cm3) | 9.6 ± 9.4 | 22.3 ± 23.3 | 0.0031 |
| TLG (g⋅cm3/mL) | 72.9 ± 119.4 | 225.8 ± 322.7 | 0.0006 |
| Peritumoral SUVmax (g/mL) | 1.5 ± 0.4 | 3.2 ± 0.6 | 0.0001 |
| Peritumoral SUVmean (g/mL) | 0.9 ± 0.3 | 1.8 ± 0.4 | 0.0001 |
| Peritumoral SUVmax ratio | 1.6 ± 0.5 | 3.2 ± 0.7 | 0.0001 |
| Peritumoral SUVmean ratio | 1.7 ± 0.6 | 3.1 ± 0.9 | 0.0001 |
NSCLC = non–small cell lung carcinoma; MTV = metabolic tumoral volume; TLG = total lesion glycolysis.
Qualitative data are expressed as numbers; continuous data are expressed as mean ± SD. P values were obtained using Kruskal–Wallis test for continuous variables and Fisher exact test for categoric variables. For imaging parameters, P < 0.003 was considered statistically significant to account for multiple comparisons.