Metabolic tumor heterogeneity analysis by F-18 FDG PET/CT predicts mediastinal lymph node metastasis in non-small cell lung cancer patients with clinically suspected N2

Metabolic heterogeneity which was defined as COV of primary tumor could predict pathological mediastinal lymph node metastasis in NSCLC patients with clinically suspected N2. Therefore, COV of primary tumor may play a complementary role to conventional imaging in providing nodal information before taking biopsy.