Clinical value of PET in identifying cervical nodal metastases of tongue cancer: a comparison with CT/MRI and clinical palpation in 38 cases / 南方医科大学学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To assess the value of PET in the identification of cervical nodal metastases of tongue cancer in comparison with CT/MRI and clinical palpation.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Thirty-eight patients with tongue cancer underwent PET and CT/MRI within 2 weeks before surgery. The results of PET, CT/MRI, and clinical palpation were interpreted separately to assess the regional lymph node status, using histopathological analysis as the golden standard. The differences in the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy among the imaging modalities and clinical palpation were analyzed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The sensitivity of PET for nodal metastasis identification was 11.1% higher than that of CT/MRI (83.3% vs 72.2%, P=0.423) and 16.6% higher than that of clinical palpation (83.3% vs 66.7%, P=0.248). The specificity of PET was 5% higher than that of CT/MRI (80% vs 75%, P=0.703) and 15% higher than that of clinical palpation (80% vs 65%, P=0.288). The accuracy of PET, CT/MRI, and clinical palpation in identifying cervical nodal metastases was 81.6%, 73.7% and 65.8%, respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of PET for detecting cervical nodal metastases are greater than those of CT/MRI and clinical palpation. Although the results failed to show statistically significant differences, we still recommend that PET be used as a supplementary modality for identifying nodal metastases of tongue cancer.</p>

Clinical application of positron-emission tomography for the identification of cervical nodal metastases of head and neck cancer compared with CT or MRI and clinical palpation / 中华口腔医学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the value of positron-emission tomography (PET) for the identification of cervical nodal metastases of head and neck cancer compared with CT/MRI and clinical palpation.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Forty patients of head and neck cancer underwent PET and CT/MRI examination 2 weeks before surgery. PET, CT/MRI and clinical palpation were interpreted separately to assess regional lymph node status. Histopathologic analysis was used as the gold standard for assessment of the lymph node involvement. Differences in sensitivity, specificity and accuracy among the imaging modalities and clinical palpation were analyzed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The sensitivity of PET for the identification of nodal metastases was 14.3% higher than that of CT/MRI (P = 0.648) and 14.3% higher than that of clinical palpation (P = 0.648), whereas the specificity of PET was 15.4% higher than that of CT/MRI (P = 0.188) and 7.7% higher than that of clinical palpation (P = 0.482). The accuracy of 18F-FDG PET, CT/MRI, and clinical palpation for the identification of cervical nodal metastases was 85.0%, 70.0% and 75.0% respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of PET for the detection of cervical nodal metastases was higher than that of CT/MRI and clinical palpation. Although the results did not show a statistically significant difference, PET can still serve as a supplementary method for the identification of nodal metastases of head and neck cancer.</p>