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Meta-Analysis
. 2019 Sep 20;20(19):4669.
doi: 10.3390/ijms20194669.

Diagnostic Performance and Prognostic Value of PET/CT with Different Tracers for Brain Tumors: A Systematic Review of Published Meta-Analyses

Giorgio Treglia  1   2   3 , Barbara Muoio  4 , Gianluca Trevisi  5 , Maria Vittoria Mattoli  6 , Domenico Albano  7 , Francesco Bertagna  8 , Luca Giovanella  9   10
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Diagnostic Performance and Prognostic Value of PET/CT with Different Tracers for Brain Tumors: A Systematic Review of Published Meta-Analyses

Giorgio Treglia et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Background: Several meta-analyses reporting data on the diagnostic performance or prognostic value of positron emission tomography (PET) with different tracers in detecting brain tumors have been published so far. This review article was written to summarize the evidence-based data in these settings.

Methods: We have performed a comprehensive literature search of meta-analyses published in the Cochrane library and PubMed/Medline databases (from inception through July 2019) about the diagnostic performance or prognostic value of PET with different tracers in patients with brain tumors.

Results: We have summarized the results of 24 retrieved meta-analyses on the use of PET or PET/computed tomography (CT) with different tracers in brain tumors. The tracers included were: fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG), carbon-11 methionine (11C-methionine), fluorine-18 fluoroethyltyrosine (18F-FET), fluorine-18 dihydroxyphenylalanine (18F-FDOPA), fluorine-18 fluorothymidine (18F-FLT), and carbon-11 choline (11C-choline). Evidence-based data demonstrated good diagnostic performance of PET with different tracers in detecting brain tumors, in particular, radiolabelled amino acid tracers showed the highest diagnostic performance values. All the PET tracers evaluated had significant prognostic value in patients with glioma.

Conclusions: Evidence-based data showed a good diagnostic performance for some PET tracers in specific indications and significant prognostic value in brain tumors.

Keywords: PET; brain metastases; brain tumors; diagnostic performance; glioma; meta-analysis; positron emission tomography; prognosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow chart of the search for meta-analyses on the diagnostic performance and prognostic value of positron emission tomography (PET) with different tracers in patients with brain tumors.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Graph showing 95% confidence intervals of sensitivity (continuous line) and specificity (dashed line) of PET with different tracers in evaluating suspicious brain tumors, according to published meta-analyses.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Graph showing 95% confidence intervals of sensitivity (continuous line) and specificity (dashed line) of PET with different tracers for glioma grading, according to published meta-analyses.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Graph showing 95% confidence intervals of sensitivity (continuous line) and specificity (dashed line) of PET with different tracers for diagnosis of recurrent brain tumor, according to published meta-analyses.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Graph showing 95% confidence intervals of sensitivity (continuous line) and specificity (dashed line) of PET with different tracers for diagnosis of recurrent brain metastasis, according to published meta-analyses.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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