Purpose: A comprehensive systematic review of the literature was conducted on parameters from 18 F-FDG PET and a meta-analysis of the prognostic value of the maximal standard uptake value (SUVmax), metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and total lesional glycolysis (TLG) in patients with breast cancer (BC).
Patients and methods: Relevant English articles from PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library were retrieved. Pooled hazard ratios (HRs) were used to assess the prognostic value of SUVmax, MTV, and TLG.
Results: A total of 20 primary studies with 3115 patients with BC were included. The combined HRs (95% confidence interval [CI] of higher SUVmax and higher TLG for event-free survival (EFS) were 1.53 (95% CI, 1.25-1.89, P = 0.0006) and 5.94 (95% CI, 2.57-13.71, P = 0.97), respectively. Regarding the overall survival (OS), the combined HRs were 1.22 (95%CI, 1.02-1.45, P = 0.0006) with higher SUVmax, and 2.91(95% CI, 1.75-4.85, P = 0.44) with higher MTV. Higher MTV showed no correlation with EFS [1.31(95% CI, 0.65-2.65, P = 0.18)] and similarly higher TLG showed no correlation with OS [1.20(95% CI, 0.65-2.23, P = 0.45)]. Subgroup analysis showed that SUVmax, with a median value of 5.55 was considered as a significant risk factor for both EFS and OS in BC patients.
Conclusion: Despite clinically heterogeneous BC patients and adoption of various methods between studies, the present meta-analysis results confirmed that patients with high SUVmax are at high risk of adverse events or death in BC patients, high MTV predicted a high risk of death and high TLG predicted a high risk of adverse events.