Abstract
Purpose: :
To evaluate prognostic value of positron emission tomography (PET) imaging in patients with choroidal melanoma
Methods: :
Sixty-four consecutive patients with choroidal melanoma who underwent pretreatment whole-body PET or PET/computed tomography and had one year of follow-up or more were retrospectively reviewed. Metabolic activity of choroidal melanoma by PET imaging was evaluated with respect to survival of patients.
Results: :
Tumor metabolic activity measured in standardized uptake value (SUV) (P<0.001), largest basal diameter of tumor (P=0.001), and tumor height (P=0.043) significantly correlated with metastatic death on univariate analysis, whereas only metabolic activity (P=0.005) was significant on multivariate analysis (Cox proportional hazards regression). ROC curve analysis showed that SUV > 2.3 was 80% sensitive and 80% specific in predicting metastatic death. There was an inverse correlation between tumor metabolic activity and time to metastasis (P=0.023, r2=0.547; linear regression).
Conclusions: :
Metabolic activity by PET imaging significantly predicted survial of patients with choroidal melanoma.
Keywords: melanoma • tumors • imaging/image analysis: clinical