The Proportion of Malignancy in Incidental Thyroid Lesions on 18-FDG PET Study: A Systematic Review and

Objective. To evaluate through a systematic review and meta- analysis the malignancy rates of thyroid incidentalomas identified in adults by 18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomogra- phy, computed tomography (18-FDG PET-CT) imaging studies. Data Sources. The literature search was conducted using OVID Medline, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, Pubmed, and reference list review (inception to April 2013) by 2 independent review authors. Review Methods. Studies with adults undergoing 18-FDG PET scan identifying a thyroid incidentaloma with definitive histo- logical or cytological results reported were included. Results. Thirty-one studies with a total of 197,296 PET studies and 3659 focal thyroid incidentalomas were identified with 1341 having definitive cytopathology or histopathology. The pooled pro- portion of malignancy was calculated as 19.8% (95% confidence interval (CI), 15.3%-24.7%) with 15.4% (95% CI, 11.4%-20.0%) of the total cases being papillary thyroid cancer. Distant metastases represented 1.1% (95% CI, 0.6%-1.8%) of the total cases. Conclusions. Our systematic review and meta-analysis sug- gests that the incidence of malignancy is high in thyroid inci- dentalomas identified through 18-FDG PET imaging studies. Thyroid incidentalomas identified through 18-FDG PET require thorough investigation.