SynthesisEuropean archives of oto-rhino-laryngology : official journal of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS) : affiliated with the German Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology - Head and Neck Surgery2025
Prevalence and malignant risk of incidental uptake in the oropharynx detected by PET-CT: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology : official journal of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS) : affiliated with the German Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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6 authors.
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Abstract
purposeTo assess the prevalence of incidental oropharyngeal uptake on PET and the risk of malignancy in patients who underwent PET-CT for reasons other than head and neck cancer.
methodsA systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted and reported in accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA). Pubmed, Embase and Cochrane databases were searched. The search was performed on the 9th of November 2024. Five studies were ultimately included for analysis.
resultsTo assess prevalence of incidental oropharyngeal uptake (IOU) three studies were analysed and included data comprised of 25,173 FDG PET scans, of which 693 contained incidental uptake in the oropharynx. The pooled prevalence of incidental FDG uptake in the oropharynx was 5% (95% CI 0-9%, range 1-10%). All five studies were included to analyse malignant risk in IOU. The pooled prevalence of malignancy in incidental FDG uptake was 6% (95% CI 1-12%, range 1-23%). The limitations of the included studies were their retrospective design and variability in study methodology and patient populations, resulting in substantial heterogeneity.
conclusionThere is a wide variation in the reported prevalence for incidental uptake in the oropharynx and incidental malignancy. Further studies are required to reach a consensus on the management of such patients.
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