Cancer treatment reviews
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Cancer treatment reviews · Feb 2004
Review Meta Analysis Comparative StudyThe value of FDG-PET in the detection, grading and response to therapy of soft tissue and bone sarcomas; a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Sarcomas represent a significant diagnostic and therapeutic challenge that requires techniques to provide better assessment of the disease than provided by traditional means. FDG-PET depicts the increased metabolism in abnormal tissues, enabling visualisation and quantification in vivo. The objective of this review was to assess the diagnostic value of FDG-PET in the detection, grading and therapy response of soft tissue and bone sarcomas. ⋯ The meta-analysis in this study was limited by the fact that only a few studies had mutual comparable outcome parameters. Moreover, the methodological quality of the studies was generally poor. Nevertheless, our results indicate that FDG-PET can discriminate between sarcomas and benign tumours and low and high grade sarcomas based on the mean SUV. The diagnostic implications of these results have to be investigated, especially the discrimination between benign tumours and low grade sarcomas. Based on this meta-analysis, there is no indication to use FDG-PET in the standard treatment of sarcomas. In the future PET imaging in bone and soft tissue sarcomas should be directed to the clinical implication for the detection and grading of sarcomas and the treatment evaluation of locally advanced sarcomas.