Prognostic significance of 18FDG PET/CT in colorectal cancer patients with liver metastases: a meta-analysis. Issue 1 (December 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Xia, Qian; Liu, Jianjun; Wu, Cheng; Song, Shaoli; Tong, Linjun; Huang, Gang; Feng, Yuanbo; Jiang, Yansheng; Liu, Yewei; Yin, Ting; Ni, Yicheng
• Is Part Of: Cancer imaging. Volume 15:Issue 1(2015)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 9
• Publication Date: 2015-12
• Subjects: SUV -- Meta-analysis -- Liver metastases -- PET /CT -- Prognosis; Cancer -- Imaging -- Periodicals; 616.994075405
• DOI: 10.1186/s40644-015-0055-z
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1740-5025

Abstract

Abstract Background The role of 18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography CT (18 FDG 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 associated18 FDG 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. Results By 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-treatment18 FDG 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). Conclusions The present meta-analysis confirms that18 FDG PET/CT is a useful tool to help predict survival outcomes in patients with liver metastases.