Correlation between radiation dose to ¹⁸F-FDG-PET defined active bone marrow subregions and acute hematologic toxicity in cervical cancer patients treated with chemoradiotherapy.

PURPOSE

To test the hypothesis that radiation dose to (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography ((18)F-FDG-PET)-defined active bone marrow (BM(ACT)) subregions is correlated with hematologic toxicity in cervical cancer patients treated with chemoradiotherapy.

METHODS AND MATERIALS

The conditions of 26 women with cervical cancer who underwent (18)F-FDG-PET before treatment with concurrent cisplatin and intensity-modulated radiation therapy were analyzed. BM(ACT) was defined as the subregion of total bone marrow (BM(TOT)) with a standardized uptake value (SUV) equal to or above the mean for that individual. Inactive bone marrow (BM(INACT)) was defined as BM(TOT) - BM(ACT). Generalized linear modeling was used to test the correlation between BM(ACT) and BM(INACT) dose-volume metrics and hematologic nadirs, particularly white blood cell count (WBC) and absolute neutrophil count (ANC).

RESULTS

Increased BM(ACT) mean dose was significantly associated with decreased log(WBC) nadir (β = -0.04; 95% CI, -0.07 to -0.01; p = 0.009), decreased log(ANC) nadir (β = -0.05; 95% CI, -0.08 to -0.02; p = 0.006), decreased hemoglobin nadir (β = -0.16; 95% CI, -0.27 to -0.05; p = 0.010), and decreased platelet nadir (β = -6.16; 95% CI, -9.37 to -2.96; p < 0.001). By contrast, there was no association between BM(INACT) mean dose and log(WBC) nadir (β = -0.01; 95% CI, -0.06 to 0.05; p = 0.84), log(ANC) nadir (β = -0.03; 95% CI, -0.10 to 0.04; p = 0.40), hemoglobin nadir (β = -0.09; 95% CI, -0.31 to 0.14; p = 0.452), or platelet nadir (β = -3.47; 95% CI, -10.44 to 3.50; p = 0.339).

CONCLUSIONS

Irradiation of BM subregions with higher (18)F-FDG-PET activity was associated with hematologic toxicity, supporting the hypothesis that reducing dose to BM(ACT) subregions could mitigate hematologic toxicity. Future investigation should seek to confirm these findings and to identify optimal SUV thresholds to define BM(ACT).