Abstract
Purpose
Patients with the same pathological stage of lung adenocarcinoma display marked variability in postoperative recurrence. The aim of this study was to predict the postoperative prognosis in patients with small-sized pulmonary adenocarcinoma on the basis of FDG uptake on PET, the extent of ground-glass opacity (GGO) on CT, and serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels.
Methods
We evaluated 87 patients (40 men, 47 women; mean age 64 years, age range 42–84 years) with lung adenocarcinoma of 3.0 cm or smaller. The level of FDG uptake (low or high), the extent of GGO (GGO or solid), and serum CEA levels (<20 ng/ml or ≥20 ng/ml) were correlated with the pathological findings of cell dedifferentiation, aggressiveness, N factor, and the incidence of relapse.
Results
The patients were divided into the following four groups: those with the GGO pattern (group I, 13 patients), those with solid pattern and low FDG uptake (group II, 35 patients), those with solid pattern, high FDG uptake, and CEA <20 ng/ml (group III, 32 patients), and those with solid pattern, high FDG uptake, and CEA ≥20 ng/ml (group IV, 7 patients). The incidence of cell dedifferentiation, aggressiveness, and lymph node metastasis were significantly different among the groups (p<0.0001); . The 5-year disease-free survival rates were 100% in group I, 80.1% in group II, 43.7% in group III, and 16.7% in group IV (p<0.0001).
Conclusion
Combined evaluation of preoperative FDG uptake, GGO, and serum CEA level may enable patients with T1 lung adenocarcinoma at low risk and at high risk of postoperative recurrence to be identified.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Tann M, Sandrasegaran K, Winer-Muram HT, Jennings SG, Welling ME, Fletcher JW. Can FDG-PET be used to predict growth of stage I lung cancer? Clin Radiol 2008;63:856–63.
Okada M, Tauchi S, Iwanaga K, Mimura T, Kitamura Y, Watanabe H, et al. Associations among bronchioloalveolar carcinoma components, positron emission tomographic and computed tomographic findings, and malignant behavior in small lung adenocarcinomas. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2007;133:1448–54.
Vansteenkiste J, Fischer BM, Dooms C, Mortensen J. Positron-emission tomography in prognostic and therapeutic assessment of lung cancer: systemic review. Lancet Oncol 2004;5:531–40.
Hanin FX, Lonneux M, Cornet J, Noirhomme P, Coulon C, Distexhe J, et al. Prognostic value of FDG uptake in early stage non-small cell lung cancer. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 2008;33:819–23.
Sasaki R, Komaki R, Macapinlac H, Erasmus J, Allen P, Forster K, et al. [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose uptake by positron emission tomography predicts outcome of non-small-cell lung cancer. J Clin Oncol 2005;23:1136–43.
Kim EA, Johkoh T, Lee KS, Han J, Fujimoto K, Sadohara J, et al. Quantification of ground-grass opacity on high-resolution CT of small peripheral adenocarcinoma of the lung: pathologic and prognostic implications. AJR Am J Roentgenol 2001;177:1417–22.
Aoki T, Tomoda Y, Watanaba H, Nakata H, Kasai T, Hashimoto H, et al. Peripheral lung adenocarcinoma: correlation of thin-section CT findings with histologic prognostic factors and survival. Radiology 2001;220:803–9.
Matsuguma H, Nakahara R, Anraku M, Kondo T, Tsuura Y, Kamiyama Y, et al. Objective definition and measurement method of ground-glass opacity for planning limited resection in patients with clinical stage IA adenocarcinoma of the lung. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 2004;25:1102–6.
Tomita M, Matsuzaki Y, Shimizu T, Hara M, Ayabe T, Onitsuka T. Serum carcinoembryonic antigen level in pN1 non-small cell lung cancer patients. Anticancer Res 2005;25:3601–5.
Matsuguma H, Nakahara R, Igarashi S, Ishikawa Y, Suzuki H, Miazawa N, et al. Pathologic stage I non-small cell lung cancer with high levels of preoperative serum carcinoembryonic antigen: clinicopathologic characteristics and prognosis. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2008;135:44–9.
Cheran SK, Nielsen ND, Patz EF. False-negative findings for primary lung tumors on FDG positron emission tomography: staging and prognostic implications. AJR Am J Roentgenol 2004;182:1129–32.
Higashi K, Ito K, Hiramatsu Y, Ishikawa T, Sakuma T, Matsunari I, et al. 18F-FDG uptake by primary tumor as a predictor of intratumoral lymphatic vessel invasion and lymph node involvement in non-small cell lung cancer: analysis of a multicenter study. J Nucl Med 2005;46:267–73.
Nomori H, Watanabe K, Ohtsuka T, Naruke T, Suemasu K, Uno K. Visual and semiquantitative analysis for F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose PET scanning in pulmonary nodules 1 cm to 3 cm in size. Ann Thorac Surg 2005;79:984–8.
Kim SK, Allen-Auerbach M, Goldin J, Fueger BJ, Dahlbom M, Brown M, et al. Accuracy of PET/CT in characterization of solitary pulmonary lesions. J Nucl Med 2007;46:214–20.
Mountain CF. Revisions in the International System for Staging Lung Cancer. Chest 1997;111:1710–7.
Higashi K, Ueda Y, Seki H, Yuasa K, Oguchi M, Noguchi T, et al. Fluorine-18-FDG PET imaging is negative in bronchioloalveolar lung carcinoma. J Nucl Med 1998;39:1016–20.
Takamochi K, Yoshida J, Nishimura M, Yokose T, Sasaki S, Nishiwaki Y, et al. Prognosis and histologic features of small pulmonary adenocarcinoma based on serum carcinoembryonic antigen level and computed tomographic findings. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 2004;25:877–83.
Sakao Y, Nakazono T, Sakuragi T, Natsuaki M, Itoh T. Predictive factors for survival in surgically resected clinical IA peripheral adenocarcinoma of the lung. Ann Thorac Surg 2004;77:1157–61.
Nakagawa M, Tanaka F, Tsubota N, Ohota M, Takao M, Wada H. A randomized phase III trial of adjuvant chemotherapy with UFT for completely resected pathological stage I non-small-call lung cancer: the West Japan Study Group for Lung Cancer Surgery (WJSG) – the 4th study. Ann Oncol 2005;16:75–80.
Ginsberg RJ, Rubinstein LV. Randomized trial of lobectomy versus limited resection for T1 N0 non-small cell lung cancer. Lung Cancer Study Group. Ann Thorac Surg 1995;60:615–22.
Ichinose Y, Yano T, Yokoyama H, Inoue T, Asoh H, Katsuda Y. The correlation between tumor size and lymphatic vessel invasion in resected peripheral stage I non-small cell lung cancer: a potential risk of limited resection. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 1994;108:684–6.
Roberts TE, Hasleton PS, Musgrove C, Swindell R, Lawson RA. Vascular invasion in non-small lung carcinoma. J Clin Pathol 1992;45:591–3.
Maeshima AM, Niki T, Maeshima A, Yamada T, Kondo H, Matsuno Y. Modified scar grade: a prognostic indicator in small peripheral lung adenocarcinoma. Cancer 2002;95:2546–54.
Nakamura H, Saji H, Ogata A, Saijo T, Okada S, Kato H. Lung cancer patients showing pure ground-glass opacity on computed tomography are good candidates for wedge resection. Lung Cancer 2004;44:61–8.
Mihara N, Ichikado K, Johkoh T, Honda O, Higashi M, Tomiyama N, et al. The subtypes of localized bronchioloalveoalar carcinoma: CT-pathologic correlation in 18 cases. AJR Am J Roentgenol 1999;173:75–9.
Ramos CD, Erdi YE, Gonen M, Riedel E, Yeung HW, Macapinlac HA, et al. FDG-PET standardized uptake values in normal anatomical structures using iterative reconstruction segmented attenuation correction and filtered back-projection. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 2001;28:155–64.
Schoder H, Erdi YE, Chao K, Gonen M, Larson SM, Yeung HW. Clinical implications of different image reconstruction parameters for interpretation of whole-body PET studies in cancer patients. J Nucl Med 2004;45:559–66.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by a Grant for Project Research from the High-Technology Center of Kanazawa Medical University (H2008-12, H2007-12, H2007-10, S2006-2, S2005-6), by a Grant-in-Aid for Cancer Research (16-5) from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Japan, and by a Grant-in-Aid (19590370) for scientific research from the Ministry of Education.
Conflicts of interest statement
None.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Higashi, K., Sakuma, T., Ito, K. et al. Combined evaluation of preoperative FDG uptake on PET, ground-glass opacity area on CT, and serum CEA level: identification of both low and high risk of recurrence in patients with resected T1 lung adenocarcinoma. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 36, 373–381 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-008-0961-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-008-0961-4