Relationship of Frontal Cortex Glucose Metabolism with Depression-Anxiety Status in Patients with Early Stage Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Aim: We investigated the relationship between frontal cortex 18-fluorodeoxyglucose (18FDG) uptake levels and depression-anxietystatus in patients with early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer (E-NSCLC) who underwent 18FDG-positron emission tomography/computedtomography (18FDG-PET/CT) imaging.Methods: This prospective study was conducted between the May-November 2020, after the permission of ethics committee. Atotal of 34 patients with E-NSCLC who underwent 18FDG-PET/CT imaging for diagnosis-staging and the control group consisting of 25subjects were included in the study. Regional cerebral 18FDG uptake level was calculated by SUVmean. Depression-anxiety levels weredetermined using Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). The frontal cortex SUVmean ratio and depression-anxiety levels wascompared between the groups, and the relationship between SUVmean ratio and depression-anxiety levels were performed.Results: The frontal cortex SUVmean ratio values were somewhat lower in the patient group compared to the control group forboth sexes, being more prominent in males. However, these differences were not statistically significant for both sexes [for male:0.75±0.006, 0.79±0.03; (p=0.055); for female: 0.73±0.04, 0.74±0.049; (p=0.71)]. In addition, a statistically significant weak negativecorrelation was found between frontal SUVmean values and anxiety levels in male patients (r=-0.4697, p=0.01).Conclusions: We believe that the measurement of frontal cortex 18FDG uptake level and notification of the clinician about the patientswith decreased values are important in patients with E-NSCLC who underwent 18FDG-PET/CT imaging.