Program Information
Assessing the Imaging Habitats of Cervical Cancer Using PET/CT Images to Predict Treatment Outcomes
B Altazi*, G Zhang , E Moros , D Fernandez , H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, FL
Presentations
SU-E-605-1 (Sunday, July 30, 2017) 1:00 PM - 1:55 PM Room: 605
Purpose: Dividing tumor volumes into sub-regions (habitats) based on heterogeneity levels might lead to better understanding of important tumor characteristics. Here we present descriptors for PET/CT spatial heterogeneity to provide new insights into cervical tumor functional and anatomical composition as well as to predict survival in cervical cancer patients.
Methods: We examined pretreatment positron emission, and computed tomography (PET/CT) scans from 79 patients with cervical cancer treated with definitive radiochemotherapy. The patient cohort was divided into groups 1 (n= 16) and group 2 (n= 46) based on median overall survival time (400 days) for group-1. We created a mathematical model that evaluates the diversity extent of the intratumor heterogeneity within the tumor volume based on histogram signal intensity levels of PET/CT images. Accordingly, the tumor regions were divided into sub-regions (habitats) of high combined PET/CT intensity (level-1), low PET/CT intensity (level-4) as well as two habitats (level-2 and level-3) with different PET and CT intensity levels. We used Kaplan-Mier survival curves with the log-rank test to associate habitat levels with a time-dependent survival endpoint composed of death from all causes or survival until the last follow-up date.
Results: The first group showed a trend of increased tumor volume than the second group. Also, group-1 tumors contained a greater number of independent volumes of level-1 and level-2 habitats than group-2. The Kaplan-Mier survival curves demonstrated that levels 1,2 and 3 could be assigned to the short or long survival groups (log rank test p-value < 0.05).
Conclusion: We demonstrate a preliminary analysis that characterized habitats in cervical cancer using PET/CT scans. We found that the habitats of combined high-intensity PET/CT and high PET intensity showed a significant difference in survival times between the two studied groups. PET/CT-radiologically defined habitats may provide valuable predictive descriptors of cervical cancer tumors.
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