Shuanghu Tiger Yuan, Richard K J Brown, Lujun Zhao, Randall K ten Haken, Milton Gross, Kemp B Cease, Matt Schipper, Paul Stanton, Jinming Yu, Feng-Ming Spring Kong
PURPOSE: To study whether esophageal FDG activity changes by time of mid-course of fractionated radiotherapy (RT), and whether these changes are associated with radiation esophagitis in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). METHODS: Fifty patients with stage I-III NSCLC were enrolled prospectively and, all received ≥60 Gy RT. FDG-PET/CT scans were acquired prior to, and during-RT after delivery of 45 Gy. Normalized standardized uptake values (NSUV), defined by the esophageal maximum SUV relative to intravascular background level in the aortic arch, were sampled in the esophagus at the level of the primary tumor, sternal notch, aortic arch, carina, and gastro-esophageal junction...
January 27, 2014: Radiation Oncology