Purpose: To investigate metabolic behavior of aggressive peripheral T-cell (PTC) lymphoma compared with other aggressive T-cell (OTC) nonHodgkin's lymphomas (NHLs) and the various grades (1, 2, 3) of follicular B-cell (FC) NHL as a reference cell type for indolent to aggressive behavior.
Materials and methods: Pretreatment 2-deoxy-2-[¹⁸F] fluoro-d-glucose positron emission tomography-computed tomography scans of 33 patients with pathologic diagnosis of aggressive T-cell NHL and FC (FC1 = 6, FC2 = 8, FC3 = 9, PTC = 6, OTC = 4) were analyzed. The maximal standardized uptake value (SUV) was measured over biopsy region (BxSUV) and the highest tumor activity of the body (BmSUV).
Results: There were significant differences in both BxSUV (P = 0.036) and BmSUV (P = 0.026) among these five groups with significantly lower metabolic activity in PTC compared with other aggressive NHL (FC3, OTC). BmSUV in PTC was significantly lower than that in OTC (8.2 ± 2.5 vs. 22.3 ± 7.0, P = 0.029) and was similar to that of FC1 (9.4 ± 1.9) and FC2 (9.7 ± 1.4) but lower than that of FC3 (14.6 ± 2.7). Similar findings were noted in BxSUV between PTC and OTC (6.7 ± 2.5 vs. 20.4 ± 7.2, P = 0.035).
Conclusion: Although 2-deoxy-2-[¹⁸F]fluoro-d-glucose positron emission tomography has been found to reflect metabolic activity for the aggressiveness of B-cell NHL, PTC has an exceptionally low metabolic activity, similar to that of low-grade B-cell FC1 and FC2.