Journal of digestive diseases
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This meta-analysis aimed to compare the diagnostic accuracy of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) and fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) or FDG-PET/computed tomography (CT) in evaluating and predicting pathological response to preoperative neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NCRT) in patients with rectal cancer. ⋯ DW-MRI is superior to FDG-PET or FDG-PET/CT in predicting and evaluating pathological responses to preoperative NCRT in patients with rectal cancer. However, its relatively low specificity and PPV limit its application in clinic, making it currently inappropriate to monitor such patients, especially those with mucinous-type rectal adenocarcinomas.