Objective To evaluate the diagnostic value of ¹⁸F-labeled PSMA PET/CT for regional lymph node metastasis in prostate cancer.

Methods We searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CNKI, VIP and Wanfang database from January 1, 2000 to May 31, 2021 for the studies about the diagnosis of ¹⁸F-labeled PSMA PET/CT for regional lymph node metastasis and staging in prostate cancer. Two investigators screened literature, extracted relevant data and assessed the quality of the literature independently. The meta-analysis was performed using Meta-disc 1.4 and Stata 16.0 software.

Results A total of 8 studies were finally included for the analysis, consisting of 754 prostate cancer patients and 2101 lymph nodes. The results of this meta-analysis showed pooled sensitivity, pooled specificity, pooled positive likelihood ratio, pooled negative likelihood ratio and diagnostic ratio were 0.82 (95%CI: 0.61-0.93), 0.98 (95%CI: 0.91-1.00), 45.7 (95%CI: 9.0-231.3), 0.18 (95%CI: 0.07-0.45) and 251 (95%CI: 34-1851), respectively. The area under the SROC curve was 0.97 (95%CI: 0.95-0.98).

Conclusion ¹⁸F-labeled PSMA PET/CT has a high diagnostic value for regional lymph node metastasis in prostate cancer.