Evaluation of fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose PET/computed tomography and human epithelial growth factor receptor 2 expression in treatment-naive patients with lung adenocarcinoma

Objective Human epithelial growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is overexpressed in several types of cancers. The correlation between tumor glucose activity and HER2 expression can vary. This study is a retrospective investigation of fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose PET/computed tomography (F-18-FDG PET/CT) and HER2 expression status in patients with lung adenocarcinoma. Methods The maximum standard uptake value (SUVmax) of F-18-FDG PET/CT was compared with the HER2 expression status in pretreated patients with lung adenocarcinoma. Moreover, clinicopathological characteristics, including age, gender, smoking, serum tumor markers, tumor location, size, stage and genetic mutation, were also evaluated in groups with different HER2 expressions. Patients' progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were also analyzed. Results Ninety-six patients with HER2 expression, including 54 patients with HER2 overexpression and 30 patients without HER2 expression were enrolled in this study. The primary pulmonary lesion was single in all patients, and all lesions were FDG-avid on PET/CT. SUVmax had no significant association with HER2 expression or overexpression in lung adenocarcinoma. Moreover, elevated serum CYFRA211 levels were obviously associated with HER2 expression but not associated with HER2 overexpression. There were no significant differences in other clinicopathological characteristics in groups with different HER2 expressions. Furthermore, multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that SUVmax, HER2 expression and tumor node metastasis stage were independent predictors of PFS, and SUVmax, CYFRA211 and epidermal growth factor receptor mutation were independent predictors of OS. Conclusion SUVmax had no significant association with the HER2 expression status in lung adenocarcinoma. F-18-FDG PET/CT and HER2 expression could provide valuable prognostic information for treatment-naive patients with lung adenocarcinoma.