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Introduction:The 2-[18F]-Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET/CT) has become an imaging tool for clinical assessment of tumor, node, metastasis in non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Primary tumor maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) on 18F-FDG PET/CT before and after radiation therapy (RT) has been studied as a potential prognostic factor for NSCLC patients receiving radiotherapy. However, the sample sizes of most studies were small, and the results of the prediction value of SUVmax remained undetermined, which lead us to perform a meta-analysis to improve the precision in estimating its effect.Methods:We performed a meta-analysis of published literature for primary tumor SUVmax-based biomarkers of the outcome of NSCLC receiving radiotherapy. The required data for estimation of individual hazard ratios (HRs) to compare patients with a low and a high SUVmax were extracted from each publication. A combined HR was calculated by Stata statistical software (Version 11). All of the results were verified by two persons to ensure its accuracy.Results:Thirteen studies were finally included into this meta-analysis; data are available in 13 studies for pre-RT primary tumor SUVmax and in five studies for post-RT. For overall survival, the combined HR estimate was 1.05 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02–1.08) and 1.32 (95% CI, 1.15–1.51) for pre-RT SUVmax and post-RT SUVmax, respectively; 1.26 (95% CI, 1.05–1.52) and 2.01 (95% CI, 1.16–3.46) for local control (LC). In stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) group, HR for LC was 1.11 (95% CI, 1.06–1.18) and 2.19 (95% CI, 1.34–3.60) for pre-SBRT SUVmax and post-SBRT SUVmax, respectively.Conclusion:Both pre-RT and post-RT primary tumor SUVmax can predict the outcome of patients with NSCLC treated with radiotherapy. Patients with high levels of pre-RT SUVmax seemed to have poorer overall survival and LC.

Cervical cancer is one of the most common gynecological tumors, and the majority of early-stage cervical cancer patients achieve good recovery through surgical treatment and concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT). However, for patients with recurrent, persistent, metastatic cervical cancer, effective treatment is rare, except for bevacizumab combined with chemotherapy. Programmed cell death-1/programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1) inhibitors might be a novel choice to improve the clinical outcomes of these patients. Thus far, some pivotal trials, including Keynote 028, Keynote 158 and Checkmate 358, have indicated established clinical benefit of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors in cervical cancer. In light of these data, the FDA has approved pembrolizumab for patients with recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer with disease progression during or after chemotherapy. There are also some ongoing studies that may provide more evidence for the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway as a therapeutic target in cervical cancer. In this review, we have summarized the status and application of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors in clinical trials for the treatment of cervical cancer and suggested some future directions in this field.

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