['The purpose of this study was to determine whether the pretreatment primary tumor standardized uptake value (SUV), as measured by positron emission tomography (PET), can add prognostic information for predicting survival in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC).', '7 articles were identified by searching electronic databases. Statistical analysis was performed with RevMan 4.2.2. SUV measurement and SUV threshold for defining high SUV were studied dependently. For each publication, we first obtained an estimate of the relative risk (RR) for comparing patients with a low or a high SUV. Subsequently, we aggregated the individual RRs into a combined RR, using a fixed-effect model. Publication bias was assessed using a funnel plot.', 'The study included 7 clinical trials dedicated to HNSCC, involving 674 patients who underwent fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose-PET scanning before treatment. The combined RR from the 7 reports for the survival was 0.53 (95% confidence interval: 0.46-0.62). The funnel plot showed symmetrical distribution, indicating no evidence of any substantial publication bias.'] Does primary tumor standardized uptake value predict survival in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma?