Performance of DWI in the Nodal Characterization and Assessment of Lung Cancer: A Meta-Analysis.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study is to assess the diagnostic performance of DWI in the N stage assessment of patients with lung cancer.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and EBSCO English-language databases and two Chinese-language databases were searched for eligible studies. On the basis of the data extracted from included studies, we determined the pooled sensitivity and specificity, calculated the positive and negative likelihood ratios, and constructed summary ROC curves. In addition, we also performed threshold effect analysis, metaregression analysis, subgroup analysis, and publication bias analysis to explain the source of heterogeneity.

RESULTS

A total of 18 articles involving 1116 patients met the inclusion criteria. On a per-patient basis, the pooled sensitivity and specificity estimates of DWI were 0.68 (95% CI, 0.63-0.73) and 0.92 (95% CI, 0.90-0.94), respectively. On a per-lesion basis, the corresponding estimates were 0.72 (95% CI, 0.69-0.75) for sensitivity and 0.96 (95% CI, 0.95-0.96) for specificity. Only the analysis method (quantitative vs qualitative) affected the diagnostic accuracy on the basis of subgroup and metaregression analysis.

CONCLUSION

Current evidence suggests that DWI is beneficial in the nodal assessment of patients with lung cancer, and it is necessary to conduct high-quality prospective studies regarding the use of DWI in detecting metastatic lymph nodes of lung cancer to determine its true value.