Metabolic Tumour Burden Measured by 18F-FDG PET/CT Predicts Malignant Transformation in Patients with Neurofibromatosis Type-1

Background To investigate the diagnostic and prognostic performances of 18 F-FDG PET/CT measures of metabolic tumour burden in patients with neurofibromatosis type-1 (NF1), suspect of malignant transformation. Methods This retrospective study included 49 patients (15–60 years old, 30 women) with a diagnosis of NF1, followed in our Reference Centre for Rare Neuromuscular Diseases, who presented clinical signs of tumour progression (pain, neurological deficit, tumour growth). Quantitative metabolic parameters were measured on 149 tumoral targets, using semi-automatic software and the best cut off values to predict transformation was assessed by Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) analysis. Prognostic value of PET/CT metabolic parameters was assessed by Kaplan-Meier estimates of overall survival. Results Lesions were histologically documented in 40 patients: a sarcomatous transformation was found in 16, a dysplastic neurofibroma (NF) in 7, and a benign NF in 17; in the remaining 9 patients, a minimal follow-up of 12 mo (median 59 mo) confirmed the absence of transformation. The optimal cut off values for detection of malignant transformation were, in decreasing order of area under the ROC curves, a tumour-to-liver (T/L) ratio >2.5, SUV max > 4.5, total lesion glycolysis (TLG) > 377, total metabolic tumour volume (TMTV) > 88 cm 3 , and heterogeneity index (HI suv ) > 1.69. The best prognostic marker was the TLG: the 4-y estimates of survival were 97% [95% CI, 90% - 100%] in patients with TLG ≤ 377 vs. 27% [95% CI, 5% - 49%] in patients with TLG > 377 (P < 0.0001; χ 2 27.85; hazard ratio 13.27 [95% CI, 3.72–47.35]). T/L ratio, SUV max and TMTV demonstrated slightly lower performance to predict survival, with χ 2 ranging 14.41–19.12. The HI suv index was not predictive of survival. Conclusion Our study demonstrates that TLG and TMTV, as PET/CT measures of metabolic tumour burden, may be used clinically to identify sarcomatous transformation in patients with NF1 and predict overall survival, with a higher specificity for the TLG. Conventional measures such as the SUV max , and T/L ratio also demonstrate high prognostic value.