Utility and limitations of metabolic parameters in head and neck cancer: finding a practical segmentation method.
Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 2022;
279:4577-4586. [PMID:
35499622 PMCID:
PMC9363397 DOI:
10.1007/s00405-022-07401-y]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2021] [Accepted: 04/11/2022] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
PURPOSE
Although metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) have shown good prognostic value in head and neck cancer (HNC), there are still many issues to resolve before their potential application in standard clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to compare the discrimination ability of two relevant segmentation methods in HNC and to evaluate the potential benefit of adding lymph nodes' metabolism (LNM) to the measurements.
METHODS
We retrospectively analyzed a recently published database of 62 patients with HNC treated with chemoradiotherapy. MTV and TLG were measured using an absolute threshold of SUV2.5. Comparison analysis with previously published background-level threshold (BLT) results was done through Concordance index (C-index) in eight prognostic models.
RESULTS
BLT obtained better C-index values in five out of the eight models. The addition of LNM improved C-index values in six of the prognostic models.
CONCLUSION
We found a potential benefit in adding LNM to the main tumor measurements, as well as in using a BLT for MTV segmentation compared to the most commonly used SUV2.5 threshold. Despite its limitations, this study suggests a practical and simple manner to use these parameters in standard clinical practice, aiming to help elaborate a general consensus.
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