Potential Utility of FDG PET-CT as a Non-invasive Tool for Monitoring Local Immune Responses

Purpose The tumor microenvironment is known to be associated with the metabolic activity of cancer cells and local immune reactions. We hypothesized that glucose metabolism measured by 2-deoxy-2-(18F)fluoro-D-glucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)-computed tomography (CT) (18F-FDG PET-CT) would be associated with local immune responses evaluated according to the presence of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs). Materials and Methods We retrospectively reviewed 56 patients who underwent 18F-FDG PET-CT prior to gastrectomy. In resected tumor specimens, TIL subsets, including cluster of differentiation (CD) 3, CD4, CD8, Forkhead box P3 (Foxp3), and granzyme B, were subjected to immunohistochemical analysis. The prognostic nutritional index (PNI) was calculated as: (10×serum albumin value)+(0.005×peripheral lymphocyte counts). Additionally, the maximum standard uptake value (SUVmax) was calculated to evaluate the metabolic activity of cancer cells. Results The SUVmax was positively correlated with larger tumor size (R=0.293; P=0.029) and negatively correlated with PNI (R=-0.407; P=0.002). A higher SUVmax showed a marginal association with higher CD3 (+) T lymphocyte counts (R=0.227; P=0.092) and a significant association with higher Foxp3 (+) T lymphocyte counts (R=0.431; P=0.009). No other clinicopathological characteristics were associated with SUVmax or TILs. Survival analysis, however, indicated that neither SUVmax nor Foxp3 held prognostic significance. Conclusions FDG uptake on PET-CT could be associated with TILs, especially regulatory T cells, in gastric cancer. This finding may suggest that PET-CT could be of use as a non-invasive tool for monitoring the tumor microenvironment in patients with gastric cancer.