FDG Tumor Heterogeneity During Chemoradiation as a Predictor of Response in Patients With Cervical Cancer

In this study, 50 evaluable patients will undergo one FDG-PET study during their chemoradiation, in addition to the standard of care pretreatment and 3-month post-treatment clinical FDG-PET/CT or FDG-PET/MR scans. From all FDG-PET studies, tumor volume, SUVmax, FDGhetero, and texture maps will be obtained. Evaluating the changes in tumor SUVmax and heterogeneity during treatment will aid in better understanding the role of these biological parameters in inadequate response to chemoradiation. Other researchers, using MRI imaging, have evaluated changes in the cervical tumor volume during treatment. The investigators expect there will be variation in how cervical tumors shrink and change during chemoradiation and therefore we are going to use multiple measures in addition to tumor volume to evaluate cervical tumor metabolic heterogeneity. Being able to predict at diagnosis the patients who are at higher risk for persistent disease following chemoradiation would allow for future studies where these high risk patients could be specifically targeted with more aggressive therapy.