Immunotherapy vs platinum for advanced or metastatic thymic carcinoma: A protocol for systematic review and meta analysis

BACKGROUND: Thymic carcinoma is a rare malignancy, and platinum-based chemotherapy has not previously been established as a standard treatment for advanced or metastatic thymic carcinoma. With the breakthrough and progress of immunotherapy, the possibility of curing thymic carcinoma has greatly increased. Some clinical trials have reported that compared with traditional platinum-based chemotherapy, the use of programmed death 1 and programmed death ligand 1 inhibitors alone can benefit patients and effectively prolong their overall survival. We compare the efficacy of single immunotherapy with traditional platinum-based chemotherapy in a systematic review and meta-analysis to provide a reliable basis for clinicians. METHODS: Pubmed (Medline), Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and Google Scholar will be searched for relevant randomised controlled trials, quasi- randomised controlled trials, and Hi-Q(high quality) prospective cohort trials published or unpublished in any language before March 1, 2021. Subgroup analysis will be performed in tumor pathological stage and ethnicity. INPLASY registration number: INPLASY2020110060. RESULTS: The results of this study will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. CONCLUSION: The results of this systematic review and meta-analysis will provide a basis for clinicians to formulate the best chemotherapy regimen for patients, as well as a research clue for clinical researchers in this field. The results of this study will expand the treatment options for thymic carcinoma, but due to the nature of the disease and intervention, large sample clinical trials are not abundant, so we will include some high-quality small sample trials, which may cause high heterogeneity. INPLASY REGISTRATION NUMBER: INPLASY2020110060