Comparative efficacy and safety for different chemotherapy regimens used concurrently with thoracic radiation for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer: a systematic review and network meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: It remains unknown which is the most preferable regimen used concurrently with thoracic radiation for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We performed a network meta-analysis to address this important issue. METHODS: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science and major international scientific meetings were searched for relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Overall survival (OS) data was the primary outcome of interest, and progression-free survival (PFS), and serious adverse events (SAEs) were the secondary outcomes of interests, reported as hazard ratio (HR) or odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: 14 RCTs with a total of 2975 patients randomized to receive twelve categories of treatments were included in the meta-analysis. Direct comparison meta-analysis showed that etoposide-cisplatin (EP) was more effective than paclitaxel-cisplatin/carboplatin (PC) in terms of OS (HR = 0.85, 95% CI: 0.77–0.94) and PFS (HR = 0.66, 95% CI: 0.47–0.95). In network meta-analysis, all regimen comparisons did not produce statistically significant differences in survival. Based on treatment ranking of OS and the benefit-risk ratio, S-1-cisplatin (SP) was likely to be the most preferable regimen for its best efficacy and low risk of causing SAEs. Uracil/tegafur-cisplatin (UP) and pemetrexed-cisplatin/carboplatin (PP) were ranked the second and third respectively. Gemcitabine-cisplatin (GP) and PC + Cetuximab (PC-Cet) appeared to be the worst and second-worst regimens for their poor efficacy and poor tolerability. CONCLUSIONS: Based on efficacy and tolerability, SP is likely to be the most preferable regimen used concurrently with thoracic radiation for locally advanced NSCLC, followed by UP and PP. Further direct head-to-head studies are needed to confirm these findings. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13014-019-1239-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.