SynthesisClinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico2026
Diagnostic imaging modalities to detect regional nodal involvement in oral squamous cell carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Artificial Intelligence-Driven MRI for Cervical Nodal Metastasis Detection in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Hierarchical Meta-Analysis of Diagnostic Accuracy.Head & neck · 2026Pooled it
- Lymph Node Metastasis in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Evolving Prognostic Markers, Molecular Insights, and Implications for Precision Staging.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Can we now save the neck of OSCC T1-T2 patients? A narrative review of whether experimental techniques are on the way to clinical application.Exploration of targeted anti-tumor therapy · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo determine the most effective diagnostic imaging modality including computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT), and ultrasound (US) for the identification of regional lymph node involvement in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC).
methodsA search was performed to identify qualified studies using PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science electronic databases from January 2013 to December 2023. The outcome assessed was the diagnostic performance of different imaging techniques in the detection of cervical lymph node metastasis in OSCC, with lymph node yield in neck dissection specimens as the gold standard for validation. Summary estimates for diagnostic performance were sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Differences in sensitivities, specificities, and DOR were tested using a bivariate random effects model.
resultsTwelve observational studies including PET/CT, MRI, and CT alone or combined in OSCC patients were included in the meta-analysis. Data from a single study based on US were insufficient to assess the value of this imaging modality. The pooled estimates of sensitivity were 0.87 for PET/CT, 0.70 for MRI, and 0.66 for CT. The corresponding pooled specificities were 0.79, 0.79, and 0.81, respectively. The DOR was 24.85 for PET/CT, 8.60 for MRI, and 8.59 for CT.
conclusionPET/CT may be recommended in clinical practice for detecting cervical metastatic disease in OSCC patients as this technique showed the most favorable diagnostic performance as compared with MRI and CT.
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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.