JOURNAL ARTICLE
MULTICENTER STUDY
Add like
Add dislike
Add to saved papers

Prognostic value of preoperative 18F-FDG PET/CT in papillary thyroid cancer patients with a high metastatic lymph node ratio: a multicenter retrospective cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: Metastatic lymph node ratio (MLNR) is a known significant predictor of disease-free survival in differentiated thyroid cancer. The authors investigated the ability of preoperative fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (F-FDG) PET/CT to predict recurrence after surgery with radioactive iodine therapy considering MLNR.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 274 patients who underwent preoperative PET/CT and surgery with radioactive iodine therapy were enrolled. The tumor-to-liver uptake ratio on PET/CT was calculated by dividing the maximum standardized uptake value of a primary lesion by the mean standardized uptake value of the normal liver. High F-FDG uptake was defined as tumor-to-liver uptake ratio more than the median cutoff value (2.1). MLNR was calculated by dividing the number of metastatic lymph nodes (LNs) by the number of cervical LNs removed. A high MLNR was also defined as one more than a threshold value (0.4), identified by plotting Kaplan-Meier survival curves and comparing them using the log-rank test. The prognostic significances of clinicopathologic variables were analyzed.

RESULTS: Fifteen (5.5%) patients developed recurrence in the thyroid bed or in cervical LNs. Cox regression analysis showed that a high MLNR was significantly associated with a worse disease-free survival (odds ratio 6.95; 95% confidence interval: 2.36-20.47; P<0.001). A subgroup analysis of 70 patients with a high MLNR showed that only high F-FDG uptake was significantly associated with a worse disease-free survival (odds ratio 5.77; 95% confidence interval: 1.22-27.16; P=0.027).

CONCLUSION: High F-FDG uptake of primary lesion on preoperative PET/CT has selective prognostic value according to the extent of metastatic LNs (MLNR>0.4).

Full text links

We have located links that may give you full text access.
Can't access the paper?
Try logging in through your university/institutional subscription. For a smoother one-click institutional access experience, please use our mobile app.

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app

Mobile app image

Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app

All material on this website is protected by copyright, Copyright © 1994-2024 by WebMD LLC.
This website also contains material copyrighted by 3rd parties.

By using this service, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.

Your Privacy Choices Toggle icon

You can now claim free CME credits for this literature searchClaim now

Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app