Resumen
Malignant melanoma is a highly aggressive malignancy, accounting for the majority of skin cancer deaths. Its global incidence rate has been increasing rapidly over the past few decades, and accurate disease diagnosis is crucial for optimal patient management. Imaging modalities, such as positron emission tomography (PET), play a pivotal role in accomplishing this objective. Based on current guidelines, [18F]F-FDG PET is recommended for the assessment of distant metastases in advanced-stage melanoma patients. In addition, it is indicated in patient follow-up. However, to our knowledge, there is no comprehensive investigation in the literature reporting the real-world performance of [18F]F-FDG PET in melanoma patients across a broad spectrum of clinical scenarios. Thus, we aimed to describe the performance of [18F]F-FDG PET in a wide range of detection-based clinical scenarios (e.g., initial staging, re-staging, locoregional detection, distant metastasis diagnosis) by conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis of the existing literature.