Bural Gonca G, Torigian Drew A, Chen Wengen, Houseni Mohamed, Basu Sandip, Alavi Abass
Division of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine, USA.
Hell J Nucl Med. 2010 Jan-Apr;13(1):23-5.
The reticuloendothelial system (RES) cells are in the defense against certain pathogens, and in the removal of dying cells, cell debris, microorganisms, and malignant cells. Liver, spleen, and bone marrow represent the major organs with high RES activity. We hypothesized that in subjects with active lung cancer, the metabolic activity of these organs would be greater than that of the subjects with no active tumor. We have studied two groups of subjects who had undergone (18)F-FDG-PET imaging for clinical purposes. The first group consisted of 39 subjects (20 women, 19 men, mean age 64.8+/-10.2 years) with benign lung nodules as demonstrated by (18)F-FDG-PET imaging. The second group consisted of 30 subjects (18 women, 12 men; mean age 65.1+/-11 years) who were known to have active lung cancer with or without distant metastases as seen on (18)F-FDG-PET imaging. The subjects in the second group did not have any evidence of liver, spleen, bone marrow, or heart involvement on (18)F-FDG-PET images. We measured the mean SUV of the liver, spleen, bone marrow, heart, and of the contralateral unaffected lung, and compared the average SUV for these organs between the two groups. We found that the mean SUV of the liver, bone marrow, and spleen were significantly greater in subjects with evidence of active primary or metastatic lung cancer compared with those of subjects who had benign lung nodules and no evidence of active malignant disease. There was a statistically significant difference between mean SUV for organs noted above between the two groups (P<0.05). In contrast, mean SUV for the heart and contralateral normal lung did not show any significant difference between the two groups. In conclusion, the mean SUV for the major organs of RES, liver, spleen, and bone marrow were higher in subjects with active lung cancer with or without metastases than in those without active malignancy. We believe these differences in SUV may indicate a differential activation of the systemic immune response, related to the presence or absence of active lung cancer, which can be detected and quantified non-invasively through (18)F-FDG-PET imaging.
网状内皮系统（RES）细胞在抵御某些病原体以及清除垂死细胞、细胞碎片、微生物和恶性细胞方面发挥作用。肝脏、脾脏和骨髓是RES活性较高的主要器官。我们假设，在患有活动性肺癌的受试者中，这些器官的代谢活性会高于无活动性肿瘤的受试者。我们研究了两组因临床目的接受过（18）F-FDG-PET成像检查的受试者。第一组由39名受试者组成（20名女性，19名男性，平均年龄64.8±10.2岁），（18）F-FDG-PET成像显示为良性肺结节。第二组由30名受试者组成（18名女性，12名男性；平均年龄65.1±11岁），（18）F-FDG-PET成像显示患有活动性肺癌，有或无远处转移。第二组受试者的（18）F-FDG-PET图像上没有肝脏、脾脏、骨髓或心脏受累的任何证据。我们测量了肝脏、脾脏、骨髓、心脏以及对侧未受影响肺的平均SUV，并比较了两组这些器官的平均SUV。我们发现，与患有良性肺结节且无活动性恶性疾病证据的受试者相比，有活动性原发性或转移性肺癌证据的受试者的肝脏、骨髓和脾脏的平均SUV显著更高。两组上述器官的平均SUV之间存在统计学显著差异（P<0.05）。相比之下，两组之间心脏和对侧正常肺的平均SUV没有显示出任何显著差异。总之，有或无转移的活动性肺癌受试者的RES主要器官肝脏、脾脏和骨髓的平均SUV高于无活动性恶性肿瘤的受试者。我们认为SUV的这些差异可能表明与活动性肺癌的存在与否相关的全身免疫反应的差异激活，这可以通过（18）F-FDG-PET成像进行无创检测和量化。
