Abstract
BackgroundThe role of 18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography CT (18FDG PET/CT), as a prognostic factor for survival in colorectal cancer patients with liver metastases, is still controversial. We sought to perform a meta-analysis of the literature to address this issue.MethodsA systematic literature search was performed to identify the studies that associated 18FDG PET/CT to clinical survival outcomes of patients with liver metastases. Methodological qualities of the included studies were also assessed. The summarized hazard ratio (HR) was estimated by using fixed- or random-effect model according to heterogeneity between trails.ResultsBy analyzing a total of 867 patients from 15 studies, we found that PET/CT for metabolic response to the therapy was capable of predicting event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) with statistical significance, and the HR was 0.45 (95 % confidence interval [CI], 0.26–0.78) and 0.36 (95 % CI, 0.18–0.71), respectively. Furthermore, pre-treatment 18FDG PET/CT with high standardized uptake value (SUV) was also significantly associated with poorer OS HR, 1.24; (95 % CI, 1.06–1.45). However, we did not find a statistically significant effect of post-treatment SUV for predicting OS HR, 1.68; (95 % CI, 0.63–4.52).ConclusionsThe present meta-analysis confirms that 18FDG PET/CT is a useful tool to help predict survival outcomes in patients with liver metastases.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40644-015-0055-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
The role of 18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography CT (18FDG PET/CT), as a prognostic factor for survival in colorectal cancer patients with liver metastases, is still controversial
Search strategy We searched PUBMED, EMBASE, and MEDLINE for articles published between January 2000 and March 2015 to identify the studies evaluating the prognostic value of 18FDG PET/CT in long-term survival prediction for patients with liver metastases
147 articles were excluded based on their abstracts, including 3 non-English articles, 4 case reports, 7 reviews, and 133 articles that were irrelevant to prognostic performance of 18FDG PET/CT in patients with liver metastases
Summary
The role of 18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography CT (18FDG PET/CT), as a prognostic factor for survival in colorectal cancer patients with liver metastases, is still controversial. We sought to perform a meta-analysis of the literature to address this issue. Methods: A systematic literature search was performed to identify the studies that associated 18FDG PET/CT to clinical survival outcomes of patients with liver metastases. Methodological qualities of the included studies were assessed. Metastases can result from a wide variety of malignancies, with the most widely known being from colorectal origins. Previous study indicated that liver metastases were detected in 40–50 % of nearly one million patients who were diagnosed with colorectal cancer worldwide each year [1]. 18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (18FDG PET/CT) has played an increasing role in clinical management of liver metastases. Unlike traditional anatomical imaging modalities, Xia et al Cancer Imaging (2015) 15:19
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