Prognostic significance of parameters from pretreatment ¹⁸F-FDG PET in hepatocellular carcinoma: a meta-analysis

The prognostic value of ¹⁸F-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography (¹⁸F-FDG PET) on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains inconclusive. This study aims to investigate the prognostic role of pretreatment ¹⁸F-FDG PET on HCC patients by meta-analysis.

PubMed, Embase, Cochrane library, and Wanfang databases were searched until June 2015. Hazard ratios (HRs) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were synthesized by Stata 10.0, and the combined results were used as effective values.

Twenty-two studies containing a total of 1721 patients were identified. According to random-effect model, meta-analysis results showed that high Tumor SUV/Liver SUV (Tsuv/Lsuv) ratio was significantly associated with poorer overall survival (OS) (HR = 2.04; 95% CI 1.50–2.79; P = 0.000) and poorer disease-free survival (HR = 7.17; 95% CI 3.58–14.36; P = 0.000); and high Tumor SUV (Tsuv) value was also correlated with poor OS (HR = 1.53; 95% CI 1.26–1.87; P = 0.000). Meanwhile, subgroup analysis results showed that the significant association above was not altered by study sample size, parameter cutoff value, analytic method, and follow-up period, but there was no significant association between Tsuv/Lsuv ratio and OS in patients who underwent resection (HR = 1.71; 95% CI 1.00–2.92; P = 0.052).

Both high Tsuv/Lsuv ratio and high Tsuv value are associated with poor prognosis in HCC patients. Therefore, pretreatment ¹⁸F-FDG PET is a useful tool in predicting the prognosis of HCC patients. More studies with explicit treatment modalities are required to investigate the prognostic value of pretreatment ¹⁸F-FDG PET on HCC patients.