Objective: To systematically review and meta-analyse literature data on the diagnostic performance of fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) and positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) in patients with Ewing sarcoma family tumours (ESFT).
Materials and methods: PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase and Scopus databases were searched for articles that evaluated FDG-PET and PET/CT in patients with ESFT from inception to 31 May 2011. Studies that fulfilled the three following criteria were included in the systematic review: FDG-PET or PET/CT performed in patients with ESFT; articles about the diagnostic accuracy of FDG-PET and PET/CT; sample size of at least 10 patients with ESFT were included. Studies in which there were sufficient data to reassess sensitivity and specificity of FDG-PET or PET/CT in ESFT were included in the meta-analysis, excluding duplicate publications. Finally, pooled sensitivity, pooled specificity and area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of FDG-PET or PET/CT in ESFT were calculated.
Results: We found 13 studies comprising a total of 342 patients with ESFT. The main findings of the studies included are presented. The meta-analysis of five selected studies provided these results about FDG-PET and PET/CT in ESFT: pooled sensitivity: 96% (95% confidence interval [CI] 91-99%); pooled specificity: 92% (95% CI 87-96%); area under the ROC curve: 0.97.
Conclusion: With regard to the staging and restaging of patients with ESFT, the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of FDG-PET and PET/CT are high; the combination of FDG-PET or PET/CT with conventional imaging is a valuable tool for the staging and restaging of ESFT and has a relevant impact on the treatment strategy plan.