Researchers have established a new international benchmark for the measurement of tumour volume in lymphoma patients.
A new benchmark dataset to standardise the way Metabolic Tumour Volume (MTV) is measured in lymphoma patients is now publicly available thanks to an international collaboration by researchers.
The results of a study for measuring MTV on PET-CT scans were published in the US Journal of Nuclear Medicine by Sally Barrington, Professor of PET imaging at the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences, King's College London.
MTV is an important predictor of outcomes in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and the benchmark dataset has now been made publicly available for PET centres and software developers around the world.
Metabolic Tumour Volume is an important predictor for patient outcomes. This new standardised measure will enable clinicians to employ PET-CT scans at the diagnostic stage rather than in treatment to better assess options and personalise care for patients.
Sally Barrington, Professor of PET Imaging and NIHR Research Professor
To create the dataset twelve readers from nine countries measured MTV in sixty lymphoma patients with close agreement using a consensus method.
Researchers and software developers will now be able to evaluate their ability to measure MTV for clinical practice and clinical trials and to compare with other methods currently in development, where AI is employed for the assessment of patient prognosis (see figure below).
This is the culmination of work carried out under the auspices of the international workshops on PET in lymphoma for which Professor Barrington is on the organising committee which also led to the development and validation of the standardised assessment lymphoma response worldwide, the Deauville score: https://www.lymphomapet.com/
Professor Barrington has also recently received funding for 'RADICAL' a national clinical trial with colleagues at the University of Nottingham where high MTV will be used for the first time with other high risk features in non-Hodgkin lymphoma to select patients for more intense treatment using her published method.
Read the research paper now: International Benchmark for Total Metabolic Tumor Volume Measurement
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Professor of PET Imaging and NIHR Research Professor
