title: Prognostic value of fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography or PET-computed tomography in cervical cancer: a meta-analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We pooled the data from published studies to estimate the prognostic value of fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) or PET/computed tomography (CT) in cervical cancer patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PUBMED to identify studies investigating the association of 18F-FDG PET or PET/CT with clinical survival outcomes of patients with cervical cancer. The summarized hazard ratio (HR) was estimated by using fixed- or random-effect model according to heterogeneity between trails.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We analyzed a total number of 1854 patients from 16 studies and found that positive pretreatment FDG-PET images were significantly associated with poorer event-free survival (hazard ratio [HR], 2.681; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.059-3.490) and overall survival (HR, 2.063; 95% CI, 1.023-4.158). Furthermore, metabolic response of therapy as shown on posttreatment PET images was also capable of predicting event-free survival and overall survival with statistical significance, and the HR was 2.030 (95% CI, 1.537-2.681) and 2.322 (95% CI, 1.485-3.630), respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Uptake of 18F-FDG on PET or PET/CT either before or after treatment has a promising value of both predicting survival outcomes for patients with cervical cancer and identifying patients for more aggressive treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, West China Second University Hospital, Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: Qianying
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Xuanyue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.forename: Mingrong
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Qie
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D064847:Multimodal Imaging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D011379:Prognosis; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D015996:Survival Rate; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18