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OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this study was to assess the diagnostic performance of FDG PET or PET/CT for detection of local, regional, and distant recurrences in the follow-up of patients with head and neck cancer who underwent definitive treatment.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. A systematic search was performed in MEDLINE and Cochrane Library (updated September 2014) to identify relevant published studies. Studies investigating the accuracy of FDG PET/CT that were performed at least 4 months after therapy were included. Two authors independently screened all retrieved articles, selected studies that met the inclusion criteria, and extracted the data. Histopathologic confirmation or clinical follow-up of at least 6 month (or both) was considered as the reference standard.

RESULTS. Twenty-three studies constituting a total of 2247 FDG PET/CT examinations met our inclusion criteria. The pooled sensitivity …