Head-to-head comparison between 18F-FDG PET/CT and PET/MRI in breast cancer

Abstract

The aim of the present review is to assess the diagnostic performance of PET/CT and PET/MRI in breast cancer patients, by a head-to-head comparison. Two reviewers conducted the literature search, study inclusion and data extraction in duplicate. A literature search for studies on a head-to-head comparison between PET/CT and PET/MRI in breast cancer patients was carried out. MEDLINE databases, such as PubMed and Scopus were consulted using the following keywords: “PET/CT” AND “PET/MRI” AND “breast cancer”. Data about the diagnostic accuracy was collected, if available, in terms of sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. Between 2014 and 2018, 8 articles were available about the head-to-head comparison between PET/CT and PET/MRI in breast cancer patients. PET/CT has a lower sensitivity for the detection of contralateral breast cancer and bone metastasis as compared to PET/MRI. PET/MRI and PET/CT has a similar diagnostic accuracy for the detection of axillary, internal mammary and mediastinal lymph node involvement. Semiquantitative parameters by PET/MRI are higher than those computed by PET/CT, but a strong organ-specific correlation between them was found. PET/MRI has some advantages in breast cancer, being able to detect more primary and skeletal/non-skeletal distant metastases, as compared to PET/CT, thanks to the advantages from the combined MRI.