Prognostic Value of Baseline PET/CT Imaging in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma: Does the Largest Distance between Two Lesions Play a Role in Prognosis?

Background: 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18F-FDG-PET/CT) has become the international standard for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) staging and is widely used for response assessment. In the past few years, the prognostic value of a variety of imaging-derived quantitative parameters has been investigated. One of these parameters is the distance between the 2 lesions that are farthest apart (Dmax). Dmax is a simple feature that captures lymphoma dissemination and has been reported to be a strong prognosticator of shorter progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in DLBCL patients (pts).