PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Subramaniam, Rathan M.
AU  - Duan, Fenghai M.
AU  - Romanoff, Justin
AU  - Yu, Jian Qin
AU  - Bartel, Twyla
AU  - Dehdashti, Farrokh
AU  - Intenzo, Charles M.
AU  - Solnes, Lilja
AU  - Sicks, JoRean
AU  - Stack, Brendan C.
AU  - Lowe, Val J.
TI  - <sup>18</sup>F-FDG PET/CT Staging of Head and Neck Cancer: Interobserver Agreement and Accuracy—Results from Multicenter ACRIN 6685 Clinical Trial
AID  - 10.2967/jnumed.122.263902
DP  - 2022 Dec 01
TA  - Journal of Nuclear Medicine
PG  - 1887--1890
VI  - 63
IP  - 12
4099  - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/63/12/1887.short
4100  - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/63/12/1887.full
SO  - J Nucl Med2022 Dec 01; 63
AB  - To our knowledge, no prior multicenter clinical trial has reported interobserver agreement of 18F-FDG PET/CT scans for staging of clinical N0 neck in head and neck cancer. Methods: A total of 287 participants were recruited. For visual analysis, positive nodal uptake of 18F-FDG was defined as uptake visually greater than activity seen in the blood pool. Results: The negative predictive value of the 18F-FDG PET/CT for N0 clinical neck was 86% or above for visual assessment (95% CI, 86%–88%) for the 2 central readers and above 90% (95% CI, 90%–95%) for SUVmax for central reads and site reads dichotomized at the optimal cutoff value of 1.8 and the prespecified cutoff value of 3.5, respectively. The κ coefficients between the 2 expert readers and between central reads and site reads varied between 0.53 and 0.78. Conclusion: The NPV of the 18F-FDG PET/CT for N0 clinical neck was 86% or above for visual assessment and above 90% for SUVmax cut points of 1.8 and 3.5 with moderate to substantial agreements.