Abstract 371P
Background
Head and neck cancers (HNCs) are a challenging disease to treat due to their anatomical complexity and high propensity for locoregional recurrence. Radiation therapy is a crucial component of treatment approach for HNCs. However, assessing the response to therapy can be difficult, particularly in the early post-treatment period. Positron emission tomography (PET) with the glucose analogue [18F] fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) has shown promising results in the assessment of treatment response in HNCs. Therefore, this systematic review is written to evaluate the role of FDG-PET/CT in the assessment of response to radiotherapy in HNCs.
Methods
A comprehensive search of electronic databases was conducted, including EMBASE, Scopus, Pubmed, PMC, and Science Direct from inception to April 2023. Studies were included if they reported on the use of FDG-PET/CT for assessing treatment response in HNCs treated with radiation therapy. Quality assessment using Newcastle-Ottawa Scale and data extraction were performed independently by three reviewers.
Results
16 studies reporting on a total of 348 patients were included in this analysis. The data assessed in the included studies were diverse, including the evaluation of the diagnostic performance of FDG-PET/CT, the comparison with conventional imaging techniques, the ability to avoid neck dissections, or assessed which patient population would derive most benefit from post-treatment FDG-PET/CT scan. Despite their diversity, almost all studies have showed that FDG-PET/CT scan is a reliable method to evaluate residual or recurrent tumour within 6 months post-(chemo)radiation therapy with pooled sensitivity of 84% and pooled specificity of 90%. There was a moderate risk of bias due to selection bias. Also, confirmation of positive nodal disease at the time of diagnosis and prior to therapy is an important shortcoming in most included studies.
Conclusions
FDG-PET/CT within 6 months after (chemo)radiotherapy in HNCs patients is a reliable method for ruling out residual/recurrent nodal disease and obviates the need for therapeutic intervention. However, further standardization of the PET technique is required.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Legal entity responsible for the study
The authors.
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.
Resources from the same session
415P - Initial experience in a real-world Asian cohort with a circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) mutation-based multi-cancer early detection (MCED) assay
Presenter: Steven Tucker
Session: Poster Display
Resources:
Abstract
416P - Three-dimensional bioprinting model of ovarian cancer for identification of patient-specific therapy response
Presenter: Jiangang Zhang
Session: Poster Display
Resources:
Abstract
417P - Early experience in using plasma-only multi-omic minimal residual disease testing in early-stage colorectal cancer patients from Asia and the Middle East
Presenter: Shaheenah Dawood
Session: Poster Display
Resources:
Abstract
418P - Decoding the intricate cellular makeup of immune-related adverse events using single-cell and spatial analysis
Presenter: Dmitrii Shek
Session: Poster Display
Resources:
Abstract
420P - Combinatory genomic and transcriptomic sequencing of Chinese KRAS mutant non-small cell lung cancer revealed molecular and inflammatory heterogeneity in tumor microenvironment
Presenter: Xuchao Zhang
Session: Poster Display
Resources:
Abstract
421P - Comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) unravels somatic BRCA (sBRCA) and homologous recombinant repair (HRR) gene alterations across multi-cancer spectrum
Presenter: Ramya Kodandapani
Session: Poster Display
Resources:
Abstract
422P - CD8Teff distinguished tumor immunotyping heterogeneity and enables precision immunotherapy
Presenter: luhui Mao
Session: Poster Display
Resources:
Abstract
423P - Insights into clinically actionable biomarkers in an Indian cancer cohort of 1000 patients using comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP)
Presenter: Mithua Ghosh
Session: Poster Display
Resources:
Abstract
424P - MD Anderson Cancer Center global precision oncology decision support (Glo-PODS) clinical trial genomic support: Pilot program at the Prince of Wales Hospital (Chinese University of Hong Kong - CUHK)
Presenter: Brigette Ma
Session: Poster Display
Resources:
Abstract
425P - Engineered <italic>Lactococcus lactis</italic> as a personalized cancer vaccine platform induces antitumour immunity via membrane-inserted peptide for neoantigens
Presenter: Meng Zhu
Session: Poster Display
Resources:
Abstract