Aim: To investigate the potential role of positron emission tomography (PET) in the diagnosis, staging and prognosis predicting of pancreatic carcinoma (PC).
Methods: A systematic review of relevant literatures in PubMed, Embase and Cochrane Library was performed. The sensitivity and specificity of diagnostic and staging studies, and HRs for prognosis predicting studies were pooled. The bivariate model was used for diagnostic studies and the random-effect model for prognostic studies. Heterogeneity between included studies was tested using χ(2) test, and subgroup analysis was performed to explain the heterogeneities. All of the calculations were performed using Stata version 11.0.
Results: A total of 39 studies were included. The pooled sensitivity of PET in diagnosing PC (30 studies, 1582 patients), evaluating N stating (4 studies, 101 patients) and liver metastasis (7 studies, 316 patients) were 0.91 (95%CI: 0.88-0.93), 0.64 (95%CI: 0.50-0.76), and 0.67 (95%CI: 0.52-0.79), respectively; and the corresponding specificity was 0.81 (95%CI: 0.75-0.85), 0.81 (95%CI: 0.25-0.85), and 0.96 (95%CI: 0.89-0.98), respectively. In prognosis analysis (6 studies, 198 patients), significant difference of overall survival was observed between high and low standardized uptake value groups (HR = 2.39, 95%CI: 1.57-3.63). Subgroup analysis showed that PET/CT was more sensitive than PET alone in evaluating liver metastasis of PC, 0.82 (95%CI: 0.48-0.98) and 0.67 (95%CI: 0.52-0.79), respectively.
Conclusion: PET can be used as a valuable diagnostic and predictive tool for PC, but its effect in the staging of PC remains indeterminate.
Keywords: Diagnosis; Meta-analysis; Pancreatic carcinoma; Positron emission tomography; Prognosis; Staging.