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Risk of malignancy in focal thyroid lesions identified by 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography or positron emission tomography/computed tomography: evidence from a large series of studies

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Tumor Biology

Abstract

Focal thyroid incidentaloma identified on 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography or positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18F-FDG PET or PET/CT) indicates a high risk of thyroid malignancy. A meta-analysis was performed to investigate whether the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) could discriminate between benign and malignant tissues in focal lesions and to explore the cutoff value of SUVmax for the diagnosis of malignancy. A total of 29 studies were involved in this meta-analysis. The results indicated that there was no statistically significant difference in the size of the two benign and malignant groups when measured by ultrasonography (95 % confidence interval (CI), −0.79 to 0.03 min; p = 0.07), while a significantly higher focal SUVmax was observed in the malignant group (95 % CI, 0.34 to 1.05; p = 0.0001). In conclusion, the findings of this meta-analysis suggest that a higher focal 18F-FDG SUVmax was associated with a higher risk of thyroid malignancy, especially at a threshold of 3.3 or more.

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Conflicts of interest

This research was supported by grants 81272934 from the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center and Department of Oncology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, 200032, Shanghai, China

    Ning Qu, Ling Zhang, Zhong-wu Lu, Wen-jun Wei, Yan Zhang & Qing-hai Ji

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  1. Ning Qu
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  2. Ling Zhang
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  3. Zhong-wu Lu
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  5. Yan Zhang
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Correspondence to Qing-hai Ji.

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Ning Qu and Ling Zhang contributed equally to this work.

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Qu, N., Zhang, L., Lu, Zw. et al. Risk of malignancy in focal thyroid lesions identified by 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography or positron emission tomography/computed tomography: evidence from a large series of studies. Tumor Biol. 35, 6139–6147 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-014-1813-4

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