title: (18)FDG-PET/CT for the detection of regional nodal metastasis in patients with head and neck cancer: a meta-analysis.
abstract: We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the role of (18)FDG-PET/CT for detection of regional nodal metastasis in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC). Studies about (18)FDG-PET/CT were systematically searched in the MEDLINE and EMBASE databases. The Stata software was used to obtain pooled estimates of sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, and negative likelihood ratio for (18)FDG-PET/CT. We also compared the performance of (18)FDG-PET/CT with that of conventional imaging (CT, MRI, and CT/MRI) by analyzing studies that had also used conventional imaging on the same patients. 24 articles bulled all inclusion criteria (1270 patients). The pooled per-patient, per-neck-side, and per-neck-level sensitivities/specificities for (18)FDG-PET/CT were 0.91/0.87, 0.84/0.83, and 0.80/0.96, respectively. Across 13 studies (3460 neck levels) with per-neck-level data, the sensitivity and specificity of PET-CT were 0.84 and 0.96, and of conventional imaging were 0.63 and 0.96, respectively. (18)FDG-PET/CT has good diagnostic performance for the detection of regional nodal metastasis in HNC patients. Compared with conventional imaging, (18)FDG-PET/CT may have higher per-neck-level sensitivity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Examination, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China.
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Departments of Otolaryngology, Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China; Pediatric Research Institute of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China; National Key Disciplinary Areas of Pediatrics, Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400016, China. Electronic address: tangxy20141010@sina.com.
authors.forename: Xinye
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Departments of Otolaryngology, Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Departments of Otolaryngology, Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China.
authors.forename: Cheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000175:diagnosis*; D064847:Multimodal Imaging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
chemical_list: D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18
keywords: Head and neck neoplasms; Meta-analysis; Nodal staging; PET/CT