ReviewCancers2024
FDG PET-CT for the Detection of Occult Nodal Metastases in Head and Neck Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Review in Cancers, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed.
- [Neck dissection-more, less, targeted?]HNO · 2026Review
- Decoding Occult Cervical Lymph Node Metastasis in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma: From AI-Driven Multimodal Fusion to Clinical Translation.Current oncology reports · 2026Review
- Malignant lymph nodes of the head and neck: imaging pearls, pitfalls, and practical approach to reporting in the era of extranodal extension.Cancer imaging : the official publication of the International Cancer Imaging Society · 2026Review
- Prognostic significance of PET/CT false-positive cervical lymph nodes in head and neck cancer.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Article
- Lymph Node Metastasis in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Evolving Prognostic Markers, Molecular Insights, and Implications for Precision Staging.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Spatially aware radiomics integrating anatomical knowledge to improve lymph node malignancy prediction in head and neck cancer.Journal of applied clinical medical physics · 2026Article
- Robotic infraclavicular approach for minimally invasive neck dissection: an evaluation of safety, oncologic efficacy, and learning curve dynamics in head and neck cancer surgery.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Article
- Fibroblast activation Protein-Targeted PET/CT using [18 F]FAP-2286 for the evaluation of lung cancer: A comparative study with [18 F]FDG PET/CT.European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging · 2026Article
- Cost-Effectiveness of Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography (PET/CT) in the Initial N-Staging of Head-Neck Cancer and Comparison with CT and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2025Article
- Dynamic Whole-Body FDG PET/CT for Predicting Malignancy in Head and Neck Tumors and Cervical Lymphadenopathy.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Multimodal imaging of cervical lymphadenopathy: diagnostic value and clinical applications.Medicine and pharmacy reports · 2025Review
- Value of PET radiomic features for diagnosis and reccurence prediction of newly diagnosed oral squamous cell carcinoma.Scientific reports · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Because of an estimated 20-30% prevalence of occult lymph node (LN) metastases in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), neck dissection is often proposed, despite its potential morbidity. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, the diagnostic performance of FDG PET-CT in detecting occult LN metastases was evaluated in patients with clinically negative necks (cN0) and in whom histopathology of a neck dissection specimen served as gold standard. Overall, 16 studies out of 2062 screened on PubMed and EMBASE fulfilled the inclusion criteria (n = 1148 patients). Seven of these sixteen studies were split into two or three studies because they contained data that could be processed distinctly in our meta-analysis. For this reason, a total of 25 studies were identified and included in the analysis (n total = 1918 patients). The overall prevalence of metastatic nodes per patient was 22.67%. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, diagnostic odds ratios, and negative predictive value (NPV) were 0.71 (95%CI: 0.66-0.75), 0.90 (95%CI: 0.84-0.93), 20.03 (95%CI: 13.51-29.70), and 0.92 (95%CI: 0.89-0.95), respectively. The main causes of inter-study heterogeneity included different reference standards (evaluation per patient, per neck side, or per neck level). The current meta-analysis showed that FDG PET-CT has a high specificity and NPV for ruling out nodal involvement in cN0 necks, but a limited sensitivity.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.