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Comparison of imaging-based gross tumor volume and pathological volume determined by whole-mount serial sections in primary cervical cancer
Authors Zhang Y, Hu J, Li J, Wang N, Li W, Zhou Y, Liu J, Wei L, Shi M, Wang S, Wang J, Li X, Ma W
Received 26 January 2013
Accepted for publication 8 April 2013
Published 19 July 2013 Volume 2013:6 Pages 917—923
DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/OTT.S43264
Checked for plagiarism Yes
Review by Single anonymous peer review
Peer reviewer comments 2
Ying Zhang,1,* Jing Hu,1,* Jianping Li,1 Ning Wang,1 Weiwei Li,1 Yongchun Zhou,1 Junyue Liu,1 Lichun Wei,1 Mei Shi,1 Shengjun Wang,2 Jing Wang,2 Xia Li,3 Wanling Ma4
1Department of Radiation Oncology, 2Department of Nuclear Medicine, 3Department of Pathology, 4Department of Radiology, Xijing Hospital, Xi'an, People's Republic of China
*These authors contributed equally to this work
Objective: To investigate the accuracy of imaging-based gross tumor volume (GTV) compared with pathological volume in cervical cancer.
Methods: Ten patients with International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage I–II cervical cancer were eligible for investigation and underwent surgery in this study. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (18F-FDG PET)/computed tomography (CT) scans were taken the day before surgery. The GTVs under MRI and 18F-FDG PET/CT (GTV-MRI, GTV-PET, GTV-CT) were calculated automatically by Eclipse treatment-planning systems. Specimens of excised uterine cervix and cervical cancer were consecutively sliced and divided into whole-mount serial sections. The tumor border of hematoxylin and eosin-stained sections was outlined under a microscope by an experienced pathologist. GTV through pathological image (GTV-path) was calculated with Adobe Photoshop.
Results: The GTVs (average ± standard deviation) delineated and calculated under CT, MRI, PET, and histopathological sections were 19.41 ± 11.96 cm3, 12.66 ± 10.53 cm3, 11.07 ± 9.44 cm3, and 10.79 ± 8.71 cm3, respectively. The volume of GTV-CT or GTV-MR was bigger than GTV-path, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). No significant difference was observed between GTV-PET and GTV-path (P > 0.05). Spearman correlation analysis showed that GTV-CT, GTV-MRI, and GTV-PET were significantly correlated with GTV-path (P < 0.01). There was no significant difference in the lesion coverage factor among the three modalities.
Conclusion: The present study showed that GTV defined under 40% of maximum standardized uptake value in PET images was very similar to the pathological volume of cervical cancer. This result should be replicated in a larger number of patients with cervical cancer in a future study of ours.
Keywords: MRI, 18F-FDG PET/CT, pathological tumor volume, gross tumor volume, cervical cancer
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