Comparison of 18FDG PET/PET-CT and bone scintigraphy for detecting bone metastases in patients with nasopharyngeal cancer: a meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE We performed a meta-analysis to compare the diagnostic efficacy of 18FDG PET/PET-CT and bone scintigraphy (BS) for diagnosing bone metastatic cancers in nasopharyngeal cancer patients. RESULTS 6 studies (1238 patients) fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The pooled sensitivities for 18FDG PET/PET-CT and BS were 0.81 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.70 to 0.98) and 0.39 (95% CI = 0.26 to 0.54), specificities were 0.99 (95% CI = 0.98 to 0.99) and 0.98 (95% CI = 0.96 to 0.99), and the areas under curve were 0.98 (95% CI = 0.97 to 0.99) and 0.84 (95% CI = 0.81 to 0.87). MATERIALS AND METHODS Several databases were searched for all available articles. We calculated the sensitivities, specificities, diagnostic odds ratios, likelihood ratios, and area under summary receiver operating characteristic curves for 18FDG PET/PET-CT and BS, respectively. CONCLUSIONS 18FDG PET/PET-CT is superior to BS for diagnosing bone metastases in nasopharyngeal cancer patients.18FDG PET/PET-CT may enhance the diagnosis of bone metastases and provide more accurate information for the optimal management of nasopharyngeal cancer.