10 Interesting articles in Head and Neck Carcinoma
1. (68)Ga-DOTA (0)-Tyr (3)-octreotide positron emission tomography in nasopharyngeal
carcinoma. Schartinger VH et al. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2015 Jan;42(1):20-4
Study with 5 patients shows Ga68 DOTATOC PET tracer uptake in NPC.
2. Accuracy of (18)F-flurodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography/computed
tomography in the staging of newly diagnosed nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a systematic
review and meta-analysis. Vellayappan BA et al. Radiol Oncol. 2014 Nov 5;48(4):331-8.
Meta-analysis of 15 studies suggests that FDG-PET/CT has good accuracy in N and M
staging of NPC.
3. The value of preoperative (18) F-FDG PET/CT for the assessing contralateral neck in
head and neck cancer patients with unilateral node metastasis (N1-3). Joo YH et al. Clin
Otolaryngol. 2014 Dec;39(6):338-44.
Retrospective pre-operative study of 157 patients, 36 had contralateral nodal
metastases, FDG PET/CT sensitivity of 80% and specificity of 96% in identifying the
contralateral nodes.
4. Use of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in PET/MRI for head and neck cancer
evaluation. Queiroz MA et al. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2014 Dec;41(12):2212-21
Prospective study with 70 patients. DWI detected more lesions but didn’t change
staging.
5. Interim FDG PET/CT for predicting the outcome in patients with head and neck
cancer. Chen SW et al. Laryngoscope. 2014 Dec;124(12):2732-8.
Prospective study with pre and interim FDG PET/CT scans of 51 patients with advanced
pharyngeal cancers. A higher SUVmax is associated with local recurrence. A reduction
of SUVmax of < 0.64 is associated with a lower 2-year OS and DFS.
6. Head and neck: normal variations and benign findings in FDG positron emission
tomography/computed tomography imaging. Højgaard L et al. PET Clin. 2014
Apr;9(2):141-5.
7. 18F-fluoro-deoxy-glucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography in
diagnosis of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: a systematic review and metaanalysis. Rohde M et al. Eur J Cancer. 2014 Sep;50(13):2271-9.
Meta-analyses of head and neck SCC showed a sensitivity of 89.3% and a specificity of
89.5%.
8. Head and neck PET/CT: therapy response interpretation criteria (Hopkins Criteria)interreader reliability, accuracy, and survival outcomes. Marcus C et al. J Nucl Med.
2014 Sep;55(9):1411-6.
Study of 520 patients, 100 with complete response then recurrence, 54% in the FDG
positive volume, 96% in the high dose region.
9. Qualitative and quantitative performance of ¹⁸F-FDG-PET/MRI versus ¹⁸F-FDGPET/CT in patients with head and neck cancer. Partovi S et al. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol.
2014 Oct;35(10):1970-5.
Study with 15 head and neck cancer patients reporting that FDG-PET/MR imaging and
FDG-PET/CT provide comparable results in detecting lymph node and distant
metastases.
10. Comparison between anatomical cross-sectional imaging and 18F-FDG PET/CT in
the staging, restaging, treatment response, and long-term surveillance of squamous cell
head and neck cancer: a systematic literature overview. Evangelista L et al. Nucl Med
Communication. 2014 Feb;35(2):123-34.
10 study meta-analysis of FDG PET/CT imaging of suspected head and neck cancer
recurrence, reporting a sensitivity of 92%, specificity of 95%, positive likelihood ratio of
16.7 and negative likelihood ratio of 0.09.