The curative effects of radiotherapy-based therapies for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive breast cancer: A meta-analysis

AIM: This meta-analysis was designed to fully assess the curative effects of radiotherapy-based therapies for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive (HER2+) breast cancer (BC). METHODS: English articles were retrieved through searching Cochrane library, PubMed, and Embase databases updated to February 2017. Studies were selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The curative effects of radiotherapy-based therapies forHER2+ BC patients were assessed using hazard rates (HRs) or odds ratios (ORs), as well as their 95% confidence intervals (CIs). In addition, Egger test was used to assess publication bias, followed by sensitivity analysis. All statistic methods were conducted using R 3.12 software. RESULTS: A total of 9 eligible studies were included into this meta-analysis, which involved 2236 HER2+ BC patients. Egger test showed that the eligible studies had no publication bias (t = 2.198, P = .05918). Sensitivity analysis demonstrated that the results were stable. HER2+ BC patients in radiotherapy group had lower locoregional recurrences than those in other groups. Moreover, meta-analysis showed that no significant difference was found between HER2+ BC patients in radiotherapy group and other groups on the 1-year overall survival (P = 0.5263, I(2) = 65.4%), 3-year overall survival (P = 0.4591, I(2) = 0), and 5-year overall survival (P = 0.06277, I(2) = 0). CONCLUSION: Radiotherapy-based therapies might have certain advantages in treating HER2+ BC patients.