Diagnosis of recurrent uterine cervical cancer: PET versus PET/CT: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objective: The aim of this work was to assess and compare the overall value of stand-alone FDG PET and PET/CT in diagnosing recurrent cervical cancer with a meta-analysis.

Methods: All the English published studies which addressed the use of PET whether interpreted with or without the use of CT for the diagnosis of recurrent cervical cancer were collected. Methodological quality of the included studies was evaluated. Pooled sensitivity and specificity were calculated, summary receiver operating characteristics (SROC) curve analysis was used to compare the diagnostic ability of stand-alone PET and PET/CT.

Result: A total of 18 studies were included in this meta-analysis, with a total of 762 subjects. Pooled sensitivity and specificity of PET and PET/CT were 0.91 (95 % CI 0.87-0.94) and 0.94 (95 % CI 0.89-0.97), and 0.92 (95 % CI 0.91-0.94) and 0.84 (95 % CI 0.74-0.91), respectively. The areas under the SROC curve (AUCs) of PET and PET/CT were 0.9610 and 0.9491, respectively. There was no statistical significance between the AUC of PET and PET/CT (P > 0.05).

Conclusion: Both PET and PET/CT have good performance in the detection of recurrent cervical cancer. However, interpreted CT images may have limited additional value on PET in detecting recurrent cervical cancer.