Elastography is a promising imaging technique that can assist in the differential diagnosis of thyroid cancer.

Sonoelastography had high accuracy (92%) in the differentiation of benign and metastatic cervical LNs in patients suspected of having thyroid or hypopharyngeal cancer.

Purpose: To investigate the diagnostic value of fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) for prediction of tumor differentiation, P-glycoprotein (P-gp) expression, and outcome in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. Experimental Design: Seventy HCC patients who underwent curative resection were prospectively enrolled in the study. FDG-PET was done 2 weeks preoperatively, and the standardized uptake value (SUV) and the tumor to nontumor SUV ratio (TNR) were calculated from FDG uptake. Tumor differentiation and P-gp expression were examined with H&E and immunohistochemical staining, respectively. Results: SUV and TNR were significantly higher in poorly differentiated HCCs than in welldifferentiated (P = 0.001 and 0.002) and moderately differentiated HCCs (P < 0.0001 and P < 0.0001). The percentage P-gp^positive area was significantly higher in well-differentiated HCCs than in poorly differentiated (P < 0.0001) and moderately differentiated HCCs (P = 0.0001). Inverse correlations were found between SUV and P-gp expression (r = À0.44; P < 0.0001) and between TNR and P-gp expression (r = À0.47; P = 0.01). Forty-three (61.4%) patients had postoperative recurrence. The overall and disease-free survival rates in the highTNR (z2.0) group were significantly lower than in the lowTNR (<2.0) group (P = 0.0001and 0.0002). In multivariate analysis, a high a-fetoprotein level (risk ratio, 5.46; P = 0.003; risk ratio, 8.78; P = 0.006) and high TNR (risk ratio, 1.3; P = 0.03; risk ratio, 1.6; P = 0.02) were independent predictors of postoperative recurrence and overall survival. Conclusions: The results suggest that preoperative FDG-PET reflects tumor differentiation and P-gp expression and may be a good predictor of outcome in HCC.

Our study indicates that 18F-FDG uptake in lung cancer correlates well with the Glut-1, HK-II, and PCNA expression. For nonmalignant lesions, the presence of a higher inflammatory process correlated with 18F-FDG uptake.

The SUV ratio was related significantly to disease-related death as well as other predictive factors, including the number of tumors, the size, stage, and involvement of vessels, and the involvement of the capsule. Consequently, we conclude that the SUV ratio provides information of prognostic relevance in patients with HCC before surgery.