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The exploration of quantitative intra-tumoral metabolic heterogeneity in dual-time 18F-FDG PET/CT of pancreatic cancer

  • Pancreas
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Abstract

Purpose

We aimed to analyze the change of quantitative intra-tumoral metabolic heterogeneity consisting of texture features and conventional metabolic parameters of pancreatic cancer (PC) in dual-time 2-deoxy-2(18F) fluoro-d-glucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT).

Methods

A retrospective analysis was conducted considering the texture features and conventional metabolic parameters in dual-time 18F-FDG PET/CT scans of PC patients. Features were extracted based on spatial distribution of 18F-FDG uptake in image. Firstly, the texture features and the conventional metabolic parameters of the delayed scan were both compared with that of the early scan. Statistically different data was defined among them. Secondly, the study evaluated the correlations between retention index (RI) of the texture features and the conventional metabolic parameters. Finally, the variation of texture features in dual-time PET/CT of resectable PC patients and unresectable PC patients was calculated separately.

Results

In total, 183 PC patients were analyzed retrospectively in this research. The conventional metabolic parameters were all statistically different between the early and delayed scans except for metabolic tumor volume (MTV). In the radiomics, there were 59 textural features. Nineteen of 59 texture features were statistically different between the early and delayed scans. Features that were more than 10% different during two scans were observed in a substantial percentage of patients. Weak correlations were only found between MTV, TLG (Total lesion glycolysis), SUVpeak and the RI of some texture features in early or delayed scans. There were obviously fewer features with significant difference in resectable PC group than in unresectable PC group. Most features showing the difference in unresectable group while no significant difference in resectable group.

Conclusions

This study investigated the change and inner correlations of quantitative tumoral metabolic heterogeneity in the dual-time 18F-FDG-PET/CT scan of PC patients. Some features displayed the difference between dual-time scans. Conventional metabolic parameters were weakly related to the change of texture feature. The change of texture feature in resectable PC group was different from that in unresectable PC group. This result is potential to provide more information for the image evaluation of PC.

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Funding

The work was supported by the project of Shanghai municipal health commission (No. 201840082).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Department of Nuclear Medicine, Changhai Hospital of Navy Military Medical University, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Guorong Jia, Rou Li & Changjing Zuo

  2. Shanghai Universal Medical Imaging Diagnostic Center of Shanghai University, Shanghai, 201103, China

    Jian Zhang

  3. School of Medical Imaging, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, 221004, Jiangsu, China

    Rou Li

  4. Shanghai Key Laboratory for Molecular Imaging, Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Shanghai, 201318, China

    Jianhua Yan

Authors
  1. Guorong Jia
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  2. Jian Zhang
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  3. Rou Li
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  4. Jianhua Yan
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Correspondence to Jianhua Yan or Changjing Zuo.

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Waived by the ethics committee of Shanghai Changhai Hospital.

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Approved.

Ethical approval

The retrospective study was approved by the ethics committee of Shanghai Changhai Hospital and registered with the number of CHEC2019-089.

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Guorong Jia and Jian Zhang contributed equally to this article.

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Jia, G., Zhang, J., Li, R. et al. The exploration of quantitative intra-tumoral metabolic heterogeneity in dual-time 18F-FDG PET/CT of pancreatic cancer. Abdom Radiol 46, 4218–4225 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-021-03068-x

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