Correlating Metabolic Activity with Cellular Proliferation in Follicular Lymphomas

The aim of this study was to correlate metabolic behavior of follicular lymphoma with proliferative index (Ki67). Pre-treatment 2-deoxy-2-[F-18]fluoro-d-glucose positron emission tomography-computed tomography scans of 23 patients with pathologic diagnosis of follicular lymphoma were retrospectively analyzed together with Ki67. The maximal standardized uptake value (SUV) was measured and corrected to glucose level of 100 mg/dl over the biopsy region (BxSUV100) and at the highest tumor activity of the body (BmSUV100). BxSUV100 was significantly correlated with Ki67 (p = 0.037). There was an increasing trend of metabolic activity across the pathologic grades of follicular lymphomas. BmSUV100 and BxSUV100 were also significantly different (p < 0.0005), suggesting potential pitfalls of sampling error by histology. The increasing trend of metabolic activity across follicular lymphoma grades correlates with cellular proliferation. The metabolic information from positron emission tomography-computed tomography may offer another useful parameter in the management of follicular lymphomas.