The added values of 18F-FDG PET/CT in differentiating cancer recurrence and osteoradionecrosis of mandible in patients with treated oral squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

Background Osteoradionecrosis (ORN) of the jaw requires a differential diagnosis to exclude cancer recurrence. Here, we sought to develop a scoring system comprising 18F-FDG PET/CT parameters for distinguishing between the two conditions in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Methods The study consisted of 103 OSCC patients with suspected ORN of the jaw. All participants underwent 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging within 6 months of diagnostic histopathology. Following extraction of PET parameters, we identified clinical and imaging predictors of mandibular recurrence-free survival (MRFS) using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis and multivariate Cox regression models. Results The results of histopathology revealed mandibular cancer recurrence in 24 patients (23.3%). Multivariate Cox regression analyses identified an age at diagnosis ≤ 52 years (P = 0.013), a location of the SUVmax voxel with soft tissue predominance (P = 0.019), and mandibular total lesion glycolysis (TLG) > 62.68 g (P < 0.001) as independent risk factors for MRFS. A scoring system was devised with scores from 0 (no risk factor) to 3 (presence of all three risk factors). High-risk patients with a score of 2–3 compared with score of 0–1 had a significantly higher likelihood of mandibular cancer recurrence (hazard ratio: 32.50, 95% confidence interval: 8.51–124.18, P < 0.001). The scoring system had a sensitivity of 87.50%, a specificity of 82.28%, and an accuracy of 83.50% for identifying mandibular cancer recurrence. Conclusions The scoring system of our study is clinically useful for identifying mandibular cancer recurrence in patients with suspected ORN of the jaw.

Prognostic Value of Radiomic Analysis Using Pre- and Post-Treatment 18F-FDG-PET/CT in Patients with Laryngeal Cancer and Hypopharyngeal Cancer

“…Third, the feature extraction software utilized in the present study is not fully compliant with Imaging Biomarker Standardization Initiative (IBSI) guidelines. Nevertheless, the terminology and equations for texture features, as well as the calculation procedures, are in line with the recommendations outlined by the IBSI [33]. The software has already undergone external validation in studies predicting treatment response in breast cancer [34] and has been utilized in various cancer types for diagnosis [33,35], treatment response [13], and prognosis [36,37] in numerous studies.…”