Diagnostic Accuracy of [<sup>18</sup>F]FDG PET/MRI in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Systematic Review and Metaanalysis
Akram Al‐Ibraheem, Ahmed Saad Abdlkadir, Ken Herrmann, Jamshed Bomanji, Hossein Jadvar, Hongcheng Shi, Asem Mansour, Diana Páez, Arturo Chiti, Andrew M. Scott
Abstract
This study evaluates the diagnostic utility of PET/MRI for primary, locoregional, and nodal head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) through systematic review and metaanalysis. <b>Methods:</b> A systematic search was conducted using PubMed and Scopus to identify studies on the diagnostic accuracy of PET/MRI for HNSCC. The search included specific terms and excluded nonhybrid PET/MRI studies, and those with a sample size of fewer than 10 patients were excluded. <b>Results:</b> In total, 15 studies encompassing 638 patients were found addressing the diagnostic test accuracy for PET/MRI within the chosen subject domain. Squamous cell carcinoma of the nasopharynx was the most observed HNSCC subtype (<i>n</i> = 198). The metaanalysis included 12 studies, with pooled sensitivity and specificity values of 93% and 95% per patient for primary disease evaluation, 93% and 96% for locoregional evaluation, and 89% and 98% per lesion for nodal disease detection, respectively. An examination of a subset of studies comparing PET/MRI against PET/CT or MRI alone for evaluating nodal and locoregional HNSCC found that PET/MRI may offer slightly higher accuracy than other modalities. However, this difference was not statistically significant. <b>Conclusion:</b> PET/MRI has excellent potential for identifying primary, locoregional, and nodal HNSCC.