This discrepancy may be explained by the predominance of adenocarcinoma in the Malik study (75% of patients, versus 53% in the present study); adenocarcinoma has being described as less FDG-avid with lower SUVmax values compared to squamous cell cancer, probably in relation to increased expression of the HK-II biomarker [3, 13]. The gene discussed is HK2; the disease is adenocarcinoma.