Background: The purpose of this study was to determine whether pretreatment 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (18F-FDG PET/CT) volume-based parameters, such as metabolic tumor volume and total lesion glycolysis, add more prognostic information in patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC).
Methods: The subjects were 47 patients with oropharyngeal SCC who underwent 18F-FDG PET/CT before any treatment and followed by definitive therapy. PET parameters (metabolic tumor volume and total lesion glycolysis) and tumor p16/p53 status were evaluated retrospectively. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed for disease-free survival (DFS), disease-specific survival (DSS), and overall survival (OS).
Results: All volume-based PET parameters were found to be significant prognostic factors for DFS, DSS, and OS in univariate analysis. In multivariate analysis, only metabolic tumor volume for total tumor lesions (cutoff 65) retained an independent association with DFS, DSS, and OS.
Conclusion: Metabolic tumor volume for total tumor lesions may be a predictive marker for survival outcomes in patients with oropharyngeal SCC with known p16/p53 status.
Keywords: 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/CT; human papillomavirus (HPV); oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma; p16; p53.
© 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.