Title

Diagnostic accuracy of PET-CT versus MRI in staging head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Authors

Poorana Priya¹, Shubham Gupta², Gautam Kumar Solanki³, Bhaskar Sai Vardhan Pentakota⁴,* & Meenakshi Sawaria⁵

Affiliation

¹Department of Pathology, Velammal Medical College Hospital and Research Institute, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India; ²Department of Radiology, Government Medical College, Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, India; ³Department of Radiology, Core Imaging, Vapi, Gujarat, India; ⁴Department of Radiology, RNT Medical College, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India; ⁵Department of Radiation Oncology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India; *Corresponding author

Email

Poorana Priya - E-mail: poorna.priya86@gmail.com; Phone: +91 9313049007

Shubham Gupta - E-mail: shubham.gupta@gmail.com; Phone: +91 7006914881

Gautam Kumar Solanki - E-mail: drgautamsolanki@gmail.com; Phone: +91 9737597603

Bhaskar Sai Vardhan Pentakota - E-mail: bsvp19@gmail.com; Phone: +91 9652571764

Meenakshi Sawaria - E-mail: mishu6968@gmail.com; Phone: +91 8000555003

Article Type

Review

Date

Received July 1, 2026; Revised July 31, 2026; Accepted July 31, 2026, Published July 31, 2026

Abstract

Accurate imaging is essential for staging and treatment planning in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Therefore, it is of interest to compare the diagnostic performance and clinical applications of 18F-FDG PET/CT and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in HNSCC staging. Relevant literature published between 2005 and 2025 was reviewed from major biomedical databases to evaluate the role of both imaging modalities. MRI demonstrated superior performance in assessing primary tumor extent, perineural spread and soft-tissue invasion, whereas PET/CT showed higher sensitivity for detecting regional nodal involvement, distant metastases and synchronous primary tumors. Thus, data shows that MRI and PET/CT provide complementary diagnostic information and their combined use offers the most comprehensive staging strategy for patients with HNSCC.

Keywords

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), PET-CT, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Diagnostic accuracy, 18F-FDG P ET/CT

Citation

Priya et al. Bioinformation 22(7): 4364-4369 (2026)

Edited by

Vini Mehta

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.