Correlation between 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography/computed Tomography and Clinicopathological Features in Invasive Ductal Carcinoma of the Breast

We evaluated the usefulness of preoperative 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18F-FDG PET/CT) examinations to predict the pathological features in primary breast cancer. In particular, we evaluated the correlation between the maximum standardized uptake values (SUVmax) obtained by 18F-FDG PET/CT and the Ki67 expression in estrogen receptor (ER)-positive invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). Primary IDC patients operated between March 2009 and July 2013 at Okayama University Hospital were enrolled. We evaluated the correlations between the SUVmax and age, postoperative pT, histological grade, lymph vascular invasion, status of hormone receptor, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), Ki67 expression and node status. The Ki67 expression was classified as high (>14%) versus low (