Table 2.
Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18FDG-PET-CT) findings according to tumor phenotype and Scarff-Bloom-Richardson (SBR) grade*
| PET-CT findings | ER positive†/ HER2 negative‡ | HER2 positive‡ | TNBC | Grade 3 | Grades 1 and 2 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total patients | 130§ | 51§ | 69§ | 119|| | 126|| | 254 |
| Patients with N3 lymph nodes | 21 (16%) | 16 (31%) | 19 (28%) | 34 (29%) | 17 (13%) | 57 (22%) |
| Total patients with distant metastases | 28 (22%) | 13 (26%) | 11 (16%) | 20 (17%) | 27 (21%) | 53 (21%) |
| Only bone metastases | 13 (10%) | 5 (10%) | 2 (3%) | 7 (6%) | 11 (9%) | 21 (8%) |
| Extra-skeletal metastases only | 5 (4%) | 6 (12%) | 7 (10%) | 9 (8%) | 8 (6%) | 18 (7%) |
| Skeletal and extra-skeletal metastases | 10 (8%) | 2 (4%) | 2 (3%) | 4 (3%) | 8 (6%) | 14 (6%) |
* N = 254; ER = estrogen receptor; HER2 = human epidermal growth factor receptor 2; TNBC = triple-negative breast cancer.
† Tumors were considered ER positive if more than 10% of cells showed staining by immunohistochemistry.
‡ Tumors were considered to overexpress HER2 (HER2 positive) if more than 30% of invasive tumor cells showed definite membrane staining resulting in a so-called fishnet appearance.
§ Phenotype was unspecified in four cases.
|| Grade was unspecified in nine tumors.