Performance of 18-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography for esophageal cancer screening

Table 1 Screenee characteristics in the cases with and without esophageal cancer n (%)

Characteristics	Total (n = 14790)	Esophageal cancer(+) (n = 28)	Esophageal cancer(-) (n = 14762)	P value
Age (yr), median (range)	61.0 (40-92)	67.5 (55-76)	61.0 (40-92)	< 0.0011
Gender				0.0022
Male	9699 (65.6)	26 (92.9)	9673 (65.5)
Female	5091 (34.4)	2 (7.1)	5089 (34.5)
Body mass index, median (range)	23.3 (13.3-44.7)	23.6 (17.6-31.3)	23.3 (13.3-44.7)	0.8851
Smoker				0.1362
Current smoker	1310 (12.9)	4 (18.2)	1306 (12.9)
Former smoker	3921 (38.6)	12 (54.5)	3909 (38.5)
Non-smoker	4936 (48.5)	6 (27.3)	4930 (48.6)
Alcohol				0.1712
Current drinker	7479 (73.6)	20 (90.9)	7459 (73.5)
Former drinker	391 (3.8)	0 (0.0)	391 (3.9)
Non-drinker	2297 (22.6)	2 (9.1)	2295 (22.6)

¹P values were calculated using the Mann-Whitney U test;

²P values were calculated using the χ² test.

Table 2 Clinicopathologic findings of esophageal cancers detected in this study

Size (mm), median (range)	12.5 (5-60)
Depth1
Tis/T1a/T1b	12/15/5
Location
Ce/Ut/Mt/Lt/Mt-Lt/Ae	0/1/20/8/2/1
Macroscopic type
0-IIc/0-IIc + IIa/0-I + IIb	30/1/1
Histopathological type
SCC/ adenocarcinoma	31/1
Treatment2, endoscopic treatment/ surgery/chemoradiotherapy/ radiation/unknown	28/1/3/1/1
Lymph node metastasis
Positive/negative	1/31
Distant metastasis
Positive/negative	0/32

¹The depth of four lesions that were not resected (n = 3) or had an unknown treatment result (n = 1) were determined clinically: T1a (n = 2) and T1b (n = 2);

²Two cases overlapped: surgery following noncurative endoscopic resection (n = 1) and chemoradiotherapy following noncurative endoscopic resection (n = 1). Ae: Abdominal esophagus; Ce: Cervical esophagus; Lt: Lower thoracic esophagus; Mt: Middle thoracic esophagus; SCC: Squamous cell carcinoma; Ut: Upper thoracic esophagus.

Table 3 Performance of 18-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography for esophageal cancer screening

	Esophageal cancer(+) (n = 28)	Esophageal cancer(-) (n = 14762)	PPV, NPV
FDG-PET positive (n = 51)	1	50	PPV 2.0%
			(95%CI: 0.0-10.4)
FDG-PET negative (n = 14739)	27	14712	NPV 99.8%
			(95%CI: 99.7-99.9)
Sensitivity, specificity	Sensitivity 3.6%	Specificity 99.7%
	(95%CI: 0.1-18.3)	(95%CI: 99.6-99.7)

FDG-PET: 18-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography; NPV: Negative predictive value; PPV: Positive predictive value.