Abstract:
Objective To investigate the role of interim positron emission tomography- computed tomography (PET- CT) in patients with relapsed diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL).
Methods A total of 38 patients with recurrent DLBCL who underwent interim PET-CT examination from January 2009 to December 2017 in Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center were enrolled in this retrospective study. The clinical data of the patients were analyzed. All of the statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 20.0. Baseline characteristics were compared using t test, Chi-squared test, or Fisher's exact test. Survival data were analyzed using life tables, the Kaplan-Meier method, and Cox regression. A two-tailed P < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.
Results Thirty cases were included in the effective group (complete remission+partial remission) and 8 cases in the ineffective group (stable disease+progressive disease). The median overall survival (OS) and progression free survival (PFS) of all patients were 77.69 months and 8.44 months, respectively. The median OS of the effective group and the ineffective group was 77.93 months and 16.37 months (P=0.017), and the median PFS of the effective group and the ineffective group was 9.86 months and 1.80 months, respectively (P=0.001). Univariate analysis and multivariate analysis showed that patients in the effective group had longer OS and PFS (P=0.006 and P=0.001, respectively). Patients with SUVmax ≤11.05 had longer PFS and OS, while patients with ΔSUVmax>8 and ΔSUVmax%>54.5% showed only longer PFS, and the difference in OS was not statistically significant.
Conclusions Interim PET-CT results and SUVmax can effectively predict the OS and PFS of relapsed DLBCL patients. ΔSUVmax and ΔSUVmax% can effectively predict the PFS of relapsed DLBCL patients.