A Japanese study published in July found that ¹⁸F-Fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose positron emissions tomography/computed tomography (FDG-PET/CT) “correlates with more advanced disease and high-risk features in patients with clinical stage 0–IA lung adenocarcinoma,” wrote the authors, sho looked at maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of FDG and compared it to patient outcomes and “advanced disease and high-risk features…in resected surgical specimens.” The study was published in Seminars in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.

They found that advanced disease and high-risk features correlated with a SUVmax above 3.20 ( 1.2% below 3.20, 43.4% ≥3.20), as did survival rate, “[t]he disease-free survival was significantly higher in patients with a SUVmax <3.20 than in those with a SUVmax ≥3.20 (P = .002)." The authors concluded that "[a] high SUVmax correlates with more advanced disease and high-risk features in patients with clinical stage 0–IA lung adenocarcinoma." Further, they recommended that "[t]he SUVmax should be considered when deciding treatment strategy in early-stage lung adenocarcinoma." Source:

Terumoto Koike, Noriaki Sato, Yuta Hosoda, Masayuki Tazawa, Tatsuya Goto, Seijiro Sato, Motohiko Yamazaki, Shin-ichi Toyabe, Masanori Tsuchida. “Maximum Standardized Uptake Value on Positron Emission Tomography is Associated with More Advanced Disease and High-risk Features in Lung Adenocarcinoma”  Seminars in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery July 25, 2021, online. Accessed: August 9, 2021.