The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracies of 18F-FDG PET/CT for detection of lymph node (LN) metastasis in penile cancer (PeCA) patients through a systematic review and meta-analysis.
The PubMed, Cochrane database, and Embase database, from the earliest available date of indexing through August 31, 2021, were searched for studies evaluating diagnostic performance of 18F-FDG PET/CT for detection of metastatic LN in PeCA patients. We determined the sensitivities and specificities across studies, calculated positive and negative likelihood ratios (LR+ and LR-, respectively), and constructed summary receiver operating characteristic curves.
Across 12 studies (479 patients), the pooled sensitivity of 18F-FDG PET/CT was 0.87 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.79-0.92) and the pooled specificity was 0.88 (95% CI, 0.79-0.93). Likelihood ratio syntheses gave an overall LR+ of 7.2 (95% CI, 3.9-13.1) and LR- of 0.15 (95% CI, 0.1-0.24). The pooled diagnostic odds ratio was 47 (95% CI, 19-116). In meta-regression analysis, no variable was the source of the study heterogeneity.
18F-FDG PET/CT showed a good diagnostic performances for detection of metastatic LN in PeCA patients. Also, 18F-FDG PET/CT revealed similar diagnostic accuracy for detection of inguinal and pelvic LN metastasis in PeCA patients.
Clinical nuclear medicine. 2022 Feb 08 [Epub ahead of print]
Sang Woo Lee, Seong-Jang Kim
From the Department of Nuclear Medicine, Kyungpook National University Chilgok Hospital and School of Medicine, Daegu Department of Nuclear Medicine, Pusan National University School of Medicine BioMedical Research Institute for Convergence of Biomedical Science and Technology Department of Nuclear Medicine, Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital, Yangsan, South Korea.