Diagnostic value of 18F-FDG PET/MRI in recurrent pelvis malignancies of female patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The aim of this study was to assess the diagnostic performance of fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose (F-18-FDG) PET/MRI for suspected recurrence of pelvis malignancies of female patients using a meta-analysis. We performed a systematical literature search for relevant studies in PubMed, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, and several Chinese databases. Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS-2) was used to assess the quality of all included studies. Pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, and diagnostic odds ratio were calculated per patient and per lesion. Summary receiver operating characteristic curves were also constructed. All procedures involving human participants in this study were performed in conformity with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments. Finally, seven articles comprising 257 patients and 695 lesions were included in this meta-analysis. On patient-based analysis, the pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, and diagnostic odds ratio of F-18-FDG PET/MRI in detecting recurrence of pelvis malignancies were 0.96 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.93-0.99], 0.95 (95% CI: 0.87-0.99), 9.85 (95% CI: 4.62-21.00), 0.07 (95% CI: 0.04-0.13), and 201.41 (95% CI: 62.89-645.03), respectively. On lesion-based analysis, the corresponding estimates were 0.99 (95% CI: 0.97-1.00), 0.94 (95% CI: 0.89-0.97), 17.11 (95% CI: 4.46-65.60), 0.02 (95% CI: 0.01-0.05), and 1125.24 (95% CI: 211.46-5987.79), respectively. The results of our meta-analysis indicate that F-18-FDG PET/MRI has excellent diagnostic performance in restaging female patients with suspected recurrence of gynecological pelvic malignancies.