The asphericity of the metabolic tumour volume in NSCLC: correlation with histopathology and molecular markers

Purpose Asphericity (ASP) is a tumour shape descriptor based on the PET image. It quantitates the deviation from spherical of the shape of the metabolic tumour volume (MTV). In order to identify its biological correlates, we investigated the relationship between ASP and clinically relevant histopathological and molecular signatures in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods The study included 83 consecutive patients (18 women, aged 66.4 ± 8.9 years) with newly diagnosed NSCLC in whom PET/CT with 18 F-FDG had been performed prior to therapy. Primary tumour resection specimens and core biopsies were used for basic histopathology and determination of the Ki-67 proliferation index. EGFR status, VEGF, p53 and ALK expression were obtained in a subgroup of 44 patients. The FDG PET images of the primary tumours were delineated using an automatic algorithm based on adaptive thresholding taking into account local background. In addition to ASP, SUVmax, MTV and some further descriptors of shape and intratumour heterogeneity were assessed as semiquantitative PET measures. Results SUVmax, MTV and ASP were associated with pathological T stage (Kruskal-Wallis, p = 0.001, p