Abstract:
Objective To investigate the correlation between the proliferation index of proliferating nuclear antigen Ki-67 (called Ki-67) in different pathological subtypes of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and the metabolic parameters of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET/CT.
Methods The clinical data of 134 patients with NSCLC diagnosed by histopathological examination in Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University from March 2018 to August 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. The patients included 86 males and 48 females, aged 39–85 (63.9±9.1) years old. All patients underwent 18F-FDG PET/CT and high-resolution CT (HRCT) imaging before surgery. Metabolic parameters, including maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax), tumor metabolic volume (MTV), and total lesion glycolysis (TLG), were extracted from the PET/CT images. Tumor size and CT morphological features were obtained from the HRCT images. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to compare the differences in PET/CT metabolic parameters and Ki-67 proliferation indexes among different clinicopathological features. Pearson and Spearman correlation analysis were used to correlate PET/CT metabolic parameters with Ki-67 proliferation index in different pathological subtypes.
Results Significant differences were found in Ki-67 proliferation index, SUVmax, MTV, and TLG among the 134 NSCLC patients in terms of tumor stage, tumor size, pathological type, lymph node metastasis, and CT morphological features (Z=2.634–84.842, all P<0.001). The Ki-67 proliferation index in all patients was positively correlated with SUVmax, MTV, and TLG (r=0.787, 0.309, 0.651; all P<0.001). The Ki-67 proliferation index of poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma (solid + micropapillary predominant type) was correlated with SUVmax, MTV, and TLG (r=0.492, 0.652, 0.603; all P<0.05). However, the SUVmax and TLG in the well-differentiated adenocarcinoma group (adenocarcinoma predominantly adherent) and the SUVmax in the moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma group (acinar+papillary predominant adenocarcinoma) were correlated linearly with the Ki-67 proliferation index (r=0.568, 0.567, 0.671; all P<0.05).
Conclusions The Ki-67 proliferation index of NSCLC was correlated with 18F-FDG PET/CT metabolic parameters SUVmax, MTV, and TLG. The highest correlation was obtained with SUVmax. The correlation degree of Ki-67 proliferation index with different 18F-FDG PET/CT metabolic parameters varied in different NSCLC pathological subtypes.