Accuracy of whole-body FDG-PET and FDG-PET/CT in M staging of nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
BACKGROUND
A meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the accuracy of whole-body positron emission tomography (PET) or PET/CT in M staging of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).


METHODS
Through a search of relevant English language studies from October 1996 to September 2011, pooled estimated sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratios, negative likelihood ratios, and summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curves of whole-body PET or PET/CT in M staging of NPC were calculated.


RESULTS
Three PET and 5 PET/CT studies were identified. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, and negative likelihood ratio of FDG-PET or PET/CT were 0.83 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.77-0.88), 0.97 (95% CI, 0.95-0.98), 23.38 (95% CI, 16.22-33.69), and 0.19 (95% CI, 0.13-0.25), respectively. The area under curve was 0.9764 and Q* index estimate was 0.9307 for FDG-PET or PET/CT.


CONCLUSIONS
Current evidence confirms the good diagnostic performance of the whole-body FDG-PET or PET/CT in M staging of NPC.
Department of Nuclear Medicine and PET Center, Changhua Christian Hospital, No. 135, Nanxiao Street, Changhua 500, Taiwan. 135834@cch.org.tw
Ming-Che
MC
Chang
Jin-Hua
JH
Chen
Ji-An
JA
Liang
Kuang-Tao
KT
Yang
Kai-Yuan
KY
Cheng
Chia-Hung
CH
Kao
D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D064847:Multimodal Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D015995:Prevalence; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D051598:Whole Body Imaging / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18