Abstract. Aim

Surgical resection is a standard therapeutic approach for some cases of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission tomography (FDG-PET) is now widely used in clinical diagnosis and staging of various types of cancers, including NSCLC. We investigated whether the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of primary tumors is useful in predicting the extent of lymph node involvement. Patients and Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 354 patients with NSCLC who underwent surgery following FDG-PET and computed tomographic (CT) scans in our hospital. Logistic regression analyses were used to assess associations between categories (age, sex, tumor size, SUVmax, serum Squamous cell carcinoma-related antigen (SCC), cytokeratin 19 fragment (CYFRA), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), Brinkman inde