Table 1.

The studies evaluating the role of fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography in axillary lymph nodes in breast cancer

Author	Year	Patient No.	Ref.	PET/CT Sensitivity (%)	PET/CT Specificity (%)	PET/CT PPV (%)	PET/CT NPV (%)	Conclusions
Wahl et al[10]	2004	360	ALND	61	80	62	79	FDG PET was limited in detection of micrometastasis
Veronesi et al[9]	2007	236	SLNB	37	96	88	66	High specificity of FDG PET/CT indicated that patients with positive PET should have ALND directly
Ueda et al[11]	2008	183	SLNB and/or ALND	58	95	85	83	Diagnostic accuracy of PET/CT was nearly equal to ultrasound
Kim et al[12]	2009	137	ALND or SLNB	77	100	100	94	FDG PET/CT could help to select patients for either ALND or SLNB
Heusner et al[17]	2009	61	SLNB	58	92	82	77	FDG PET/CT could not replace invasive approaches for axillary staging
Choi et al[13]	2012	154	Biopsy or additional imaging and follow-ups	37	96	83	74	FDG PET/CT could not be recommended as a primary diagnostic procedure
Groheux et al[16]	2011	70	SLNB or US-FNA	63	91	63	91	FDG PET/CT might impact cancer management in small portions of patients
Koolen et al[3]	2012	290	SLNB or US-FNA	82	92	98	53	FDG PET/CT could be recommended as a standard staging procedure
Pritchard et al[18]	2012	325	SLNB or ALND	24	100	96	75	FDG PET/CT was not sufficiently sensitive to detect positive axillary nodes

FDG PET/CT: Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography; PPV: Positive predictive value; NPV: Negative predictive value; ALND: Axillary lymph node dissection; SLNB: Sentinel lymph node biopsy.