The Role and Potential of 18F-FDG PET/CT in Malignant Melanoma: Prognostication, Monitoring Response to Targeted and Immunotherapy, and Radiomics

Abstract

Novel therapeutic approaches, consisting of immune check-point inhibitors (ICIs) and molecularly targeted therapy, have thoroughly changed the clinical management of malignant melanoma (MM), the most frequent and deadly skin cancer. Since only 30–40% of MM patients respond to ICIs, imaging biomarkers suitable for the pre-therapeutic stratification and response assessment are warmly welcome. In this scenario, positron emission computed tomography (PET/CT) with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) has been successfully utilized for advanced MM staging and therapy response evaluation. Furthermore, several PET-derived parameters (SUVmax, MTV, TLG) were particularly impactful for the prognostic evaluation of patients submitted to targeted and immunotherapy. In this review, we performed a web-based and desktop research on the clinical applications of 18F-FDG PET/CT in MM, with a particular emphasis on the various metabolic criteria developed for interpreting PET/CT scan in patients undergoing immunotherapy or targeted therapy or a combination of both. Furthermore, the emerging role of radiomics, a quantitative approach to medical imaging applying analysis methodology derived by the field of artificial intelligence, was examined in the peculiar context, putting a particular emphasis on the potential of this discipline to support clinicians in the delicate process of building patient-tailored pathways of care.