Prognostic Predictive Value Of ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT Imaging For Immunotherapy Of NSCLC

Objective To investigate the predictive value of 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging for immunotherapy in non-small-cell lung cancer(NSCLC).Methods From December 2016 to October 2020,twenty-four patients who accepted 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging before immunotherapy were retrospectively analyzed.According to the therapeutical response at 6 months after immunotherapy,all patients were divided into 2 groups:clinical benefit(CB)and progressive disease(PD).The differences of age,sex,smoking history,pathological type,TNM classification and PET parameters of the patients were analyzed using independent-sample t test or χ2 test.For the parameters with statistically significant differences in univariate analysis,the median were used to divided the patients into 2 groups and the survival curves were drawn.Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and log-rank analysis were performed.Results Between CB and PD,no significant difference was found in age,sex,smoking history,pathological types and TNM classification(P>0.05).Among the PET metabolic parameters,whole body metabolic tumor volume(MTV-wb)(P=0.044)and metastatic tumors metabolic tumor volume(MTV-mt)(P=0.021)were found to be significantly different.However,no significant correlation was found between progression free survival(PFS)and MTV-wb,and between PFS and MTV-mt.Conclusion The baseline PET/CT imaging before immunotherapy in NSCLC patients has potential predictive value for short-term prognosis.The patient with less whole body tumor burden is likely to have a better prognosis.