Patients whose non-small cell lung cancer hasn't spread to the mediastinal lymph nodes are much better candidates for surgical resection. However, studies haven't found a correlation between the presence of nodal metastases and nodal size as seen via computed tomography, the modality most often used.
FDG PET offers an alternative approach, but one requiring a potentially high capital investment. Thus, researchers from the University of Michigan undertook a meta-analysis of 29 earlier studies to compare FDG PET with CT in evaluating nodal involvement.
"By using pooled point estimates of diagnostic performance and summary ROC curves derived from the available published evidence, we showed that FDG PET was significantly more accurate than CT for help in detection of mediastinal nodal metastatses in patients with NSCLC," the authors wrote. Specifically, PET had a lower false-positive rate and higher sensitivity than CT, offering the potential of steering more of the best candidates into surgery and others away from unhelpful resections.
FDG PET offers an alternative approach, but one requiring a potentially high capital investment. Thus, researchers from the University of Michigan undertook a meta-analysis of 29 earlier studies to compare FDG PET with CT in evaluating nodal involvement.
"By using pooled point estimates of diagnostic performance and summary ROC curves derived from the available published evidence, we showed that FDG PET was significantly more accurate than CT for help in detection of mediastinal nodal metastatses in patients with NSCLC," the authors wrote. Specifically, PET had a lower false-positive rate and higher sensitivity than CT, offering the potential of steering more of the best candidates into surgery and others away from unhelpful resections.
