Combining Independent Studies of Diagnostic Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron-Emission Tomography and Computed Tomography in Mediastinal Lymph Node Staging for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Abstract

Numerical and visual results of the meta-analysis of recent relevant reports agreed that FDG-PET is more accurate than CT in identifying mediastinal lymph node metastases in non-small cell lung cancer.

Tumour heterogeneity in non-small cell lung carcinoma assessed by CT texture analysis: a potential marker of survival

“…Computed tomography (CT) remains an important investigation in the diagnosis of lung cancer [4] and historically CT has been used for initial tumour staging [5]. However, during the last decade, [ 18 F] fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) has emerged as a more accurate imaging technique for the diagnosis and staging of NSCLC [6][7][8][9][10]. Furthermore, the intensity of FDG uptake within the primary measured as the standardised FDG uptake value (SUV) has been shown to convey prognostic information on survival [11].…”

Negative Predictive Value of Positron Emission Tomography and Computed Tomography for Stage T1-2N0 Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer: A Meta-Analysis

“…The predictive ability of CT for mediastinal lymph node metastasis has been well documented, with sensitivity and specificity of 57%–68% and 76–82%, respectively. 2–6 Using the fluorine-18 ( 18 F) fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) tracer, positron emission tomography (PET) has much better performance in identification of nodal disease because abnormal metabolic uptake generally precedes anatomic change, providing a sensitivity of 79%–85% and a specificity of 87%–92%. 2–6 Combined PET and CT (PET-CT), in particular integrated PET-CT, could further improve the accuracy of malignant node detection by combining information on spatial resolution, anatomic localization, and metabolic activity of the suspicious lesion.…”

Additional value of FDG-PET to contrast enhanced-computed tomography (CT) for the diagnosis of mediastinal lymph node metastasis in non-small cell lung cancer: a Japanese multicenter clinical study

“…In the results of Alongi et al [17] for 13 reports up until 2005, the sensitivity was 68% (95% CI 0.582-0.788) and the specificity was 76% (95% CI 0.668-0.859) for the CT findings, and the sensitivity was 83% (95% CI 0.582-0.788) and the specificity was 76% (95% CI 0.668-0.859) for the PET findings. The results of the present study were similar to the previous reports and were considered to be generalizable.…”