Diagnostic Accuracy of PET/CT for Overall Evaluation of Distant Malignancies in Cancer Patients
| Study | No. of studies (no. of patients) | Sensitivity (95% CI) | Specificity (95% CI) | PLR (95% CI) | NLR (95% CI) |
| All | 41 (4,305) | 0.93 (0.88–0.96) | 0.96 (0.95–0.96) | 20.8 (16.8–25.8) | 0.08 (0.05–0.13) |
| Type of eligible patients | |||||
| Primary cancer | 23 (2,607) | 0.91 (0.83–0.95) | 0.95 (0.94–0.96) | 18.7 (14.9–23.5) | 0.10 (0.06–0.18) |
| Recurrent cancer | 16 (1,215) | 0.91 (0.80–0.96) | 0.96 (0.94–0.97) | 22.9 (15.3–34.3) | 0.09 (0.04–0.22) |
| Prevalence | |||||
| Low prevalence (<15%) | 17 (1,825) | 0.93 (0.85–0.97) | 0.96 (0.94–0.97) | 22.0 (16.4–29.7) | 0.07 (0.03–0.16) |
| High prevalence (≥15%) | 24 (2,480) | 0.92 (0.84–0.96) | 0.95 (0.94–0.97) | 19.7 (14.5–26.9) | 0.09 (0.04–0.17) |
| QUADAS* | |||||
| <12 | 18 (1,671) | 0.95 (0.90–0.98) | 0.96 (0.95–0.97) | 25.3 (17.3–37.1) | 0.05 (0.02–0.11) |
| ≥12 | 23 (2,634) | 0.89 (0.81–0.94) | 0.95 (0.94–0.96) | 18.1 (14.0–23.3) | 0.11 (0.06–0.21) |
| Analysis method | |||||
| Qualitative | 19 (2,144) | 0.90 (0.81–0.95) | 0.95 (0.94–0.96) | 18.6 (14.8–23.3) | 0.11 (0.05–0.21) |
| Both qualitative and quantitative | 17 (1,671) | 0.93 (0.85–0.97) | 0.95 (0.93–0.97) | 19.7 (13.7–28.4) | 0.07 (0.03–0.17) |
| Design | |||||
| Prospective | 22 (2,071) | 0.88 (0.79–0.94) | 0.96 (0.95–0.97) | 20.7 (16.1–26.7) | 0.12 (0.07–0.23) |
| Retrospective | 19 (2,234) | 0.96 (0.90–0.98) | 0.95 (0.94–0.97) | 20.6 (14.5–29.2) | 0.04 (0.02–0.11) |
↵* Number of items assessed as “yes” in QUADAS tool.