High correlations between primary tumours and loco-regional metastatic lymph nodes in non-small-cell lung cancer with respect to glucose transporter type 1-mediated 2-deoxy-2-F18-fluoro- d-glucose uptake

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate whether glucose transporter type 1 (Glut-1) mediated 2-deoxy-2-F18-fluoro- d-glucose (FDG) uptake of primary tumour is related to the likelihood of malignancy involvement in loco-regional lymph nodes (LNs) in 126 non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients (M:F = 103:23, age = 65 ± 9.7 years). Maximum standardised uptake values (maxSUV) and Glut-1 expression levels (determined by PET and immunostaining, respectively) of primary tumours and PET positive loco-regional LNs were compared. Significant correlations were found between malignant LNs and primary tumours with respect to maxSUV ( r = 0.6451, p < 0.0001), %Glut-1 expression ( r = 0.8341, p < 0.0001) and Glut-1 staining intensity ( ρ = 0.827, p < 0.0001). The area-under-curve value for LN differentiation using lymph node maxSUV was significantly higher in patients with a primary tumour maxSUV of >6 (AUC = 0.775, p = 0.0001). High correlations between the primary tumours and metastatic LNs in NSCLC with respect to the Glut-1 mediated FDG uptake may be useful for mediastinal LN discrimination by FDG-PET.