Predictive value of ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT in restaging patients affected by ovarian carcinoma: a multicentre study

Ovarian cancer is the eighth most common malignancy among women and has a high mortality rate. Prognostic factors able to drive an effective therapy are essential. ¹⁸F-Fluoro-2-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT) has been investigated in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer and showed promise in diagnosing, staging, detecting recurrent lesions and monitoring treatment response. Conversely, its prognostic role remains unclear. We aimed at assessing the prognostic value of ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT performed in the restaging process in a multicentre study.

We evaluated 168 patients affected by ovarian carcinoma, who underwent a restaging ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT. The presence of local recurrences, lymph node involvement and distant metastasis was recorded as well as lesion dimensions, maximum and mean standardized uptake values (SUV_max and SUV_mean, respectively). Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) at 3 and 4 years were computed by using Kaplan-Meier curves. Increased odds ratio was assessed using Cox regression analysis testing all lesion parameters measured by PET/CT.

PFS was significantly longer in patients with a negative than a positive restaging PET/CT study (3- and 4-year PFS 64 and 53 % vs 23 and 12 %, respectively; p < 0.001). Similarly, a negative study was associated with a significantly higher OS rate after 4 years of follow-up (67 vs 25 % in negative and positive groups, respectively; p < 0.001). Lymph node or distant involvement were also independently associated with an increased risk of disease progression [hazard ratio (HR) 1.6 and 2.2, respectively; p = 0.003]. Moreover, PET/CT showed an incremental prognostic value compared to the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) staging system. In the analysis of patient subsets, individuals with the same FIGO stage I–II but with negative PET had a significantly better 4-year OS than patients with low FIGO stage but positive PET. This implies that patients with the same FIGO stage can be further prognostically stratified using PET (p = 0.01). At receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, no thresholds for semiquantitative parameters were predictive of a worse outcome.

¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT has an important prognostic value in assessing the risk of disease progression and mortality rate. An efficacious therapy planning might therefore effectively rely on ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT findings. Semiquantitative data were not proven to be an effective tool to predict disease progression.