Positron emission tomography/computed tomography outperforms MRI in the diagnosis of local recurrence and residue of nasopharyngeal carcinoma: An update evidence from 44 studies

Abstract

Studies on nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in five electronic databases were systematically searched online from the inception to June 5, 2018. Quality of the included studies was assessed using the updated Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2. Data of sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, diagnostic odds ratio, and the 95% confidence intervals were pooled using a bivariate random‐effect model. Forty‐four studies with 61 groups of data and totally 3369 patients were included in the qualitative and quantitative synthesis analysis. The overall estimated sensitivity and specificity of positron emission tomography/computed tomography/magnetic resonance imaging (PET‐CT/MRI) for local recurrent/residual NPC were 0.90 and 0.85, respectively. The pooled area under the curve of (AUC) of PET‐CT/MRI in the summary receiver operator characteristic curve was 0.94. Subgroup analysis showed MRI vs PET‐CT had lower sensitivity (0.83 vs 0.92) and specificity (0.78 vs 0.89). The AUCs of MRI and PET‐CT were 0.87 and 0.96, respectively. No‐cross of 95% CI was found in MRI vs PET/CT (0.87‐0.90 vs 0.94‐0.98). Meta‐regression showed PET/CT vs MRI was a potential source of heterogeneity. PET/CT and MRI both showed quite high overall ability in diagnosing local recurrent/residual NPC, but the subgroup analysis indicated PET‐CT was superior over MRI in diagnosis of local recurrence and residue of NPC after radiotherapy. The examination methods affected the heterogeneity within studies.

Low value of whole-body dual-modality [18f]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography in primary staging of stage I–II nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a nest case-control study

“…Moreover, our previous study demonstrated that the NPC patients with stage N2–3 and Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) DNA ≥ 4000 copies/mL would benefit more from PET/CT to detect distant metastasis [ 8 ]. With regard to local recurrence and residual NPC, the PET/CT was superior to MRI in diagnostic value based on the results of a meta-analysis [ 9 ]. Thus, it can be concluded that PET/CT is very important in the primary staging of NPC patients.…”

Utility of Serum EB Virus Zta Antibody in the Diagnostic of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma: Evidences From 2,126 Cases and 15,644 Controls

“…First, we assessed the threshold effect using the Pearson coefficient (r = 0-0.341, P = 0.103). The threshold effect determined which model was used (14). No threshold effect existed for the present study.…”

Clinical utility of contrast‐enhanced ultrasonography in the diagnosis of benign and malignant small renal masses among Asian population

“…For each study we extracted four folds data for analysis including TP, FP, FN, and TN. For all analysis the following parameters were calculated for assessing the diagnostic ability, including sensitivity, specificity, diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), positive likelihood ratio (PLR), area under the curve (AUC) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) . We also conducted the subgroup analysis in study design (retrospective vs. perspective), lesion length (≤3 vs. ≤ 4), and sample size (<62 [sample size median] vs. >62).…”