Prognostic role of PET/CT in endometrial cancer.

Objectives: The present study evaluates the prognostic value of metabolic parameters related to the primary tumor identifiedin preoperative fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) scans inpatients with endometrial cancer (EC). Material and

Methods: This study included 120 patients with EC who underwent PET/CT in the preoperative period. Thepatients' age, maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax), SUVmean, metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and the totallesion glycolysis (TLG) value of the primary tumor on PET/CT; as well as the stage, histological subtype, grade and size ofthe primary EC; the degree of myometrial invasion (MI) cervical invasion (CI), lymphovascular invasion (LVI), lymph nodemetastasis (LNM) and distant metastasis (DM) were all recorded. The relationship of these factors with progression-freesurvival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) was evaluated.

Results: The study included 120 patients with EC with a mean age of 62.3 ± 0.02 years. Of the total, 32 patients diedaround the time of the analysis and 38 patients showed disease progression. The mean OS was 32.7 ± 1.6 months and themean PFS was 30.5 ± 2.8 months. No significant relationship was identified between the SUVmax, SUVmean, MTV, TLGvalues, patient age, tumor size, histology, grade and MI degree, and OS or PFS. Disease stage, LVI, CI, LNM and DM wereidentified as prognostic factors for OS and PFS.

Conclusions: The present study found no significant relationship between preoperative PET parameters in EC and OS andPFS, although prospective studies involving a larger number of patients are required.