To Radiate or Not to Radiate? Implications of PET Biomarkers in Primary Mediastinal B-cell Lymphoma

This patient1 has clinical (eg, skin lesions that resolved after dose-adjusted R-EPOCH) and imaging features (probably a high maximum standardized uptake value) that make us nervous about an increased risk of relapse, but a posttreatment score of 3 on the 5-point scale has been associated with excellent outcomes. We do not think that the lack of improvement between the interval and posttreatment positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) affects his prognosis. We would also want to know the baseline and posttreatment functional PET/CT parameters, such as the maximum standardized uptake value, metabolic tumor volume, and total lesion glycolysis; Pinnix et  al have done an elegant study showing that these features are predictive of progression-free survival in primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL).
Source: International Journal of Radiation Oncology * Biology * Physics - Category: Radiology Authors: Tags: Gray Zone Source Type: research