Meta-Analysis Finds PET/MR Equal or Better Than PET/CT in Some Cancers

In a head-to-head comparison with FDG PET/CT, FDG PET/MRI demonstrated comparable or superior diagnostic performance across a range of cancers and endpoints, according to a meta-analysis published in the American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR).

“The findings help to identify clinical settings where PET/MRI may provide particular clinical benefit for oncologic evaluation,” wrote corresponding author Raymond Poon, MPH, of the program in evidence-based care at Ontario Health’s Juravinski Hospital and Cancer Center in Canada.

Poon et al. queried MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (via OVID) for head-to-head comparison studies of the diagnostic performance of FDG PET/CT and FDG PET/MRI in patients with cancer. Diagnostic performance of the two modalities was then summarized, stratified by performance endpoint. For endpoints with sufficient data, the authors performed meta-analysis using bivariate modeling to produce summary estimates of pooled sensitivity and specificity. Reported performance in individual studies was recorded for remaining endpoints.

Ultimately, in this AJR systematic review of 29 studies featuring 1,656 total patients with a range of cancer types undergoing imaging for various clinical indications—and with performance of meta-analysis in the presence of sufficient data—FDG PET/MRI showed comparable or even better performance relative to FDG PET/CT across a range of diagnostic endpoints.