Objective: This study was designed to assess whether tumor uptake of (18)F-FDG (FDG) expressed as the standardized uptake value (SUV) can be used to predict survival in patients with head and neck cancer. Furthermore, a prognostic maximum SUV was determined with univariate and bivariate analyses.
Conclusion: Low SUVs (</= 7.0) predicted significantly higher rates of 2-year local control (p = 0.0067) and disease-free survival (p = 0.0051) as compared with high SUVs (> 7.0). In the Cox proportional hazards model, tumor SUV was a significant and independent predictor of local control (p = 0.022) and disease-free survival (p = 0.019). In addition, in the group of high SUV, high T stage was more associated with poorer outcome than low T stage (p = 0.0502). Therefore, patients with higher tumor FDG uptake should be considered for a more aggressive treatment approach.