Evaluating Tumor Response of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients With 18F-Fludeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography: Potential for Treatment Individualization

Evaluation of the early response in NSCLC patients showed that it is feasible to determine a threshold value for effective radiosensitivity corresponding to good response. It also showed that a threshold value for the fraction of negative αeff could also be correlated with poor response. The proposed method, therefore, has potential to identify candidates for more aggressive strategies to increase the rate of local control and also avoid exposing to unnecessary aggressive therapies the majority of patients responding to standard treatment.