Background: The identification of surgical non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with poor prognosis is a priority in clinical oncology because of their high 5-year mortality. This meta-analysis explored the prognostic value of maximal standardized uptake value (SUVmax), metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) on disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) in surgical NSCLC patients.
Materials and methods: MEDLINE, EMBASE and Cochrane Libraries were systematically searched until August 1, 2015. Prospective or retrospective studies that evaluated the prognostic roles of preoperative 18F-FDG PET/CT with complete DFS and OS data in surgical NSCLC patients were included. The impact of SUVmax, MTV or TLG on survival was measured using hazard ratios (HR). Sub-group analyses were performed based on disease stage, pathological classification, surgery only and cut-off values.
Results: Thirty-six studies comprised of 5807 patients were included. The combined HRs for DFS were 2.74 (95%CI 2.33-3.24, unadjusted) and 2.43 (95%CI: 1.76-3.36, adjusted) for SUVmax, 2.27 (95%CI 1.77-2.90, unadjusted) and 2.49 (95%CI 1.23-5.04, adjusted) for MTV, and 2.46 (95%CI 1.91-3.17, unadjusted) and 2.97 (95%CI 1.68-5.28, adjusted) for TLG. The pooled HRs for OS were 2.54 (95%CI 1.86-3.49, unadjusted) and 1.52 (95%CI 1.16-2.00, adjusted) for SUVmax, 2.07 (95%CI 1.16-3.69, unadjusted) and 1.91 (95%CI 1.13-3.22, adjusted) for MTV, and 2.47 (95%CI 1.38-4.43, unadjusted) and 1.94 (95%CI 1.12-3.33, adjusted) for TLG. Begg's test detected publication bias, the trim and fill procedure was performed, and similar HRs were obtained. The prognostic role of SUVmax, MTV and TLG remained similar in the sub-group analyses.
Conclusions: High values of SUVmax, MTV and TLG predicted a higher risk of recurrence or death in patients with surgical NSCLC. We suggest the use of FDG PET/CT to select patients who are at high risk of disease recurrence or death and may benefit from aggressive treatments.