The value of ¹⁸F‐fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography for prediction of treatment response in gastrointestinal stromal tumors: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

BACKGROUND: Early detection of response to treatment is critically important in gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST). Therefore, the present systematic review and meta-analysis assessed the value of (18) f-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography ((18) FDG-PET) on prediction of therapeutic response of GIST patients to systemic treatments. METHODS: The literature search was conducted using PubMed, SCOPUS, Cochrane, and Google Scholar databases, and review article references. Eligible articles were defined as studies included confirmed GIST patients who underwent (18) FDG-PET as well as assessing the screening role of it. RESULTS: Finally, 21 relevant articles were included. The analysis showed the pooled sensitivity and specificity of 18FDG-PET in evaluation of response to treatment of GIST patient were 0.90 (95% CI: 0.85-0.94; I(2) = 52.59, P = 0.001) and 0.62 (95% CI: 0.49-0.75; I(2) = 69.7, P = 0.001), respectively. In addition, the pooled prognostic odds ratio of (18) FDG-PET for was 14.99 (95% CI, 6.42-34.99; I(2) = 100.0, P < 0.001). The Meta regression showed that sensitivity of (18) FDG-PET was higher if the sample size of study was equal or more than 30 cases (sensitivity = 0.93; 95% CI: 0.89-0.97), when using PET/CT (sensitivity = 0.92; 95% CI: 0.89-0.97), and self-design criteria (sensitivity = 0.93; 95% CI: 0.87-1.0). CONCLUSION: The present meta-analysis showed (18) FDG-PET has a significant value in predicting treatment response in GIST patients.