Bisphosphonates and risk of lung cancer: Protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

The association between the use of bisphosphonates (BPs) and the risk of lung cancer has been concerned recently. There is no explicit study indicating that whether the use of BPs would affect the risk of lung cancer. So, we conducted a meta-analysis to figure out the relationship between BPs and lung cancer. We searched the databases of PubMed and Embase. The random effects were used to calculate the pooled odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence interval (CIs) for the risk of lung cancer in BPs users compared with non-users. The stability of our results was evaluated by the sensitivity analysis. The publication bias was assessed in our study. The data in our study comes from the public database, therefore ethical approval is not necessary. Also, our study did not involve patient consent. Four studies met our inclusion criteria. All the included studies are cohort studies. Our analysis indicated that there was no significant association between the use of BPs and the risk of lung cancer (OR 1.02, 95%CI 0.85- 1.24, I(2) 71%). In our secondary analysis, the use of alendronate may increase the risk of lung cancer. The pooled OR of 3 studies is (OR 1.10, 95%CI 0.84–1.45, I(2) 77%), but when we performed a sensitivity analysis, 1 of the OR is (OR 1.23, 95%CI 1.02–1.49, I(2) 4.1%). This is the most detailed meta-analysis on this topic. And there was no significant association between the use of BPs and lung cancer. However, exposure to alendronate may increase the risk of lung cancer. More studies are needed to confirm our findings.