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Danyang Wang,1 Yanlei Huo,1 Suyun Chen,1 Hui Wang,1 Yingli Ding,2 Xiaochun Zhu,3 Chao Ma1,4 1Department of Nuclear Medicine, Affiliated XinHua Hospital of Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China; 2Department of Nuclear Medicine, Affiliated Third People’s Hospital of Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China; 3Department of Nuclear Medicine, Affiliated Ninth People’s Hospital of Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China; 4Department of Nuclear Medicine, Tenth People’s Hospital of Tongji University, Shanghai, China Purpose: 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) is the reference standard in staging of 18F-FDG-avid lymphomas; however, there is no recommended functional imaging modality for indolent lymphomas. Therefore, we aimed to compare the performance of whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (WB-MRI) with that of 18F-FDG PET/CT for lesion detection and initial staging in patients with aggressive or indolent lymphoma. Materials and methods: We searched the MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CENTRAL databases for studies that compared WB-MRI with 18F-FDG PET/CT for lymphoma staging or lesion detection. The methodological quality of the studies was assessed using version 2 of the “Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies” tool. The pooled staging accuracy (µ) of WB-MRI and 18F-FDG PET/CT for initial staging and for assessing possible heterogeneity (χ2) across studies were calculated using commercially available software. Results: Eight studies comprising 338 patients were included. In terms of staging, the meta-analytic staging accuracies of WB-MRI and 18F-FDG PET/CT for Hodgkin lymphoma and aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) were 98% (95% CI, 94%–100%) and 98% (95% CI, 94%–100%), respectively. The pooled staging accuracy of 18F-FDG PET/CT dropped to 87% (95% CI, 72%–97%) for staging in patients with indolent lymphoma, whereas that of WB-MRI remained 96% (95% CI, 91%–100%). Subgroup analysis indicated an even lower staging accuracy of 18F-FDG PET/CT for staging of less FDG-avid indolent NHLs (60%; 95% CI, 23%–92%), in contrast to the superior performance of WB-MRI (98%; 95% CI, 88%–100%). Conclusion: WB-MRI is a promising radiation-free imaging technique that may serve as a viable alternative to 18F-FDG PET/CT for staging of 18FDG-avid lymphomas, where 18F-FDG PET/CT remains the standard of care. Additionally, WB-MRI seems a less histology-dependent functional imaging test than 18F-FDG PET/CT and may be the imaging test of choice for staging of indolent NHLs with low 18F-FDG avidity. Keywords: lymphoma, meta-analysis, whole-body diffusion-weighted MRI, 18F-FDG PET/CT, staging