Table 2. Therapeutic outcome of patients after administration of the initial chemotherapy.

No.	Completed cycles of initial chemotherapy	% change in tumor size after initial chemotherapy	RECIST criteria	Intervention after initial chemotherapy	Post-surgical pathological assessment	Baseline FDG-SUVmax	% change in SUVmax at 2nd cycle	Metabolic response at 2nd cycle	Comments
1	6	−25.6	PR	Surgery	Grade 2	9.8	−47.1	Response	The patient received endocrine therapy and showed no progression of disease for 6 months after surgery
2	6	−54.5	PR	Surgery	Grade 2	8.5	−63.3	Response	The patient received adjuvant endocrine therapy and no evidence of relapse was found by routine imaging for 8 months after surgery
3	2	−40	PR	-	-	10.3	−63	Response	The patient declined further treatment after the completion of 2 cycles and was therefore withdrawn from the study
4	6	−25.4	PR	Surgery	Grade 1b	4.4	−41.4	Response	The patient received adjuvant endocrine therapy and no evidence of relapse was found by routine imaging for 7 months after surgery
5	5	−13.4	SD	Surgery	Grade 0	6.8	−11.8	Nonresponse	The patient received adjuvant endocrine therapy and locoregional radiotherapy and no evidence of relapse was found by routine imaging for 7 months after surgery
6	2	40	PD	Surgery	Grade 0	23.2	12.7	Nonresponse	The patient underwent adjuvant chemotherapy and locoregional radiotherapy, but relapse in the lung and bones was detected by CT scans 6 months after surgery.
7	2	−4.9	PD	2nd line chemotherapy	-	17.8	−8.5	Nonresponse	Disease progression of primary and metastatic lesions of the lung and bones was detected by FDG-PET/CT scan after administration of 2 cycles of the initial chemotherapy

PR,partial response; SD,stable disease; PD,progressive disease; Grade 2, disappearance or marked degeneration of two-thirds or more of tumor cells; Grade 1b, disappearance or marked degeneration of one-third to less than two-thirds of tumor cells; Grade 0, no change in tumor cells.