Meta-analysis of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging in identification of colorectal cancer.

Purpose: This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the performance of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI) in identification of colorectal cancer. Methods: A systematic literature search was performed for studies that evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of DWI in identification of colorectal cancer. Methodological quality was assessed by Quality Assessment for Studies of Diagnostic Accuracy 2 (QUADAS 2) tool. After extracting data, we estimated the pooled sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios, and constructed summary receiver operating characteristics (SROC) curve. Results: Ten studies involving 367 malignant lesions and 178 benign lesions were considered eligible after full-text review. The pooled sensitivity and specificity were 0.95 (95% CI: 0.90-0.97) and 0.93 (95% CI: 0.85-0.97), respectively. Positive likelihood ratio and negative likelihood ratio were 12.8 (95% CI: 5.99-27.4) and 0.06 (95% CI: 0.03-0.11), respectively. The area under SROC curve was 0.98. Conclusions: Our meta-analysis indicates that DWI is a highly accurate diagnostic method in identification of colorectal cancer.