Objective: To assess the relationship between the overexpression of facilitative glucose transporter-1 (Glut1) and fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake in patients with primary lung squamous cell carcinoma.
Methods: From April 1999 to March 2001, 23 patients with lung squamous cell carcinoma were imaged using FDG positron emission tomography (PET) before surgery. Their maximum and mean standard uptake values (SUVmax and SUVmean) of tumor and SUV of the normal lung (SUVlung) were measured. The expression of Glut1 of all the 23 cases was analysed in paraffin sections using SP immunohistochemistry.
Results: All the 23 tumors tested were Glut1 positive (69 +/- 18)% of tumor cell area was positive and staining intensity was 4.6 +/- 0.7. All tumors of the patients could be detected by FDG-PET. FDG uptake of tumor was higher than that of normal lung (P < 0.01). SUVmax, SUVmean and SUVlung were 8.33 +/- 4.14, 6.10 +/- 3.00 and 0.38 +/- 0.13 respectively. Correlations were found among Glut1 expression and FDG uptake and tumor size (P < 0.01).
Conclusions: (1) Glut1 overexpression is universal in the lung squamous cell carcinoma. (2) SUV was higher in the lung squamous cell carcinoma than that of the normal lung tissue. (3) Glut1 expression and FDG uptake and tumor size appear to be correlated with each other in patients with lung squamous cell carcinoma.