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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Med.
Sec. Gastroenterology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1541461
This article is part of the Research Topic Advances in Medical Imaging for Precision Diagnostic and Therapeutic Applications in Digestive Diseases View all articles
Diagnostic Performance of [ 68 Ga]Ga-FAPI-04 PET vs. [ 18 F]FDG PET in Detecting Lymph Node Metastasis in Digestive System Cancers: A Head-to-Head Comparative Meta-analysis
Provisionally accepted- 1 The Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Region, China
- 2 Liuzhou People's Hospital, Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Region, China
Purpose: This meta-analysis aimed to compare the diagnostic effectiveness of [ 68 Ga]Ga-FAPI-04 PET and [ 18 F]FDG PET for detecting lymph node metastasis in digestive system cancer patients.A comprehensive search of PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase databases was conducted to identify relevant articles up to June 2024. Studies were included if they evaluated the diagnostic performance of [ 68 Ga]Ga-FAPI-04 PET and [ 18 F]FDG PET in detecting lymph node metastasis in digestive system cancer patients. Sensitivity and specificity were assessed using the DerSimonian and Laird method and were transformed using the Freeman-Tukey double arcsine transformation.Results: 15 articles, encompassing a total of 617 patients, were included in this study. The overall sensitivity of [ 68 Ga]Ga-FAPI-04 PET for diagnosing lymph node metastasis in digestive system cancers was 0.82 (95% CI: 0.67-0.93), and the specificity was 0.91 (95% CI: 0.84-0.97). In comparison, the sensitivity of [ 18 F]FDG PET was 0.51 (95% CI: 0.38-0.63), with a specificity of 0.81 (95% CI: 0.64-0.94). These results suggest that [ 68 Ga]Ga-FAPI-04 PET has a significantly higher sensitivity (P < 0.01) and similar specificity (P = 0.20) compared to [ 18 F]FDG PET in detecting lymph node metastasis in digestive system cancers.Our meta-analysis indicates that [ 68 Ga]Ga-FAPI-04 PET has higher sensitivity and similar specificity compared to [ 18 F]FDG PET in diagnosing lymph node metastasis in 3 digestive system cancers. However, the high heterogeneity among the studies may impact the robustness of the current evidence. Therefore, future research should prioritize larger prospective studies with more diverse populations and specific cancer subtypes to draw more definitive conclusions.
Keywords: Digestive system cancers, [ 68 Ga]Ga-FAPI-04 PET, [ 18 F]FDG PET, lymph node metastasis, Meta-analysis
Received: 07 Dec 2024; Accepted: 05 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Li, Qin, Huang, Qin, Chen and Ouyang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Rong Ouyang, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Region, China
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