Clinical assessment of prophylactic chemotherapy in treating with hydatidiform mole: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Hydatidiform mole (HM) is more common as molar pregnancy. It is a disease classified under the category of gestational trophoblastic diseases, which could metastasize after originating in the placenta. A majority of females suffering from molar pregnancies are curable by evacuating retained products of conception and the patient's fertility is preserved. In some cases, the growth perseveres and leads to gestational trophoblastic neoplasia, which is an extremely malicious condition that needs chemo-based treatment. There is a possibility to lessen the risk of gestational trophoblastic disease in females with HM through the administration of prophylactic chemo. Yet, there is controversy regarding prophylactic chemotherapy administered pre-or-post removal of HM to curtail the malignant sequelae. Therefore, we will conduct this research to assess both the efficacy as well as security of using prophylactic chemotherapy to treat HM. METHODS: In the preliminary review, the authors will search for randomized controlled trials involving prophylactic chemotherapy to treat HM. The literature search is carried out in the following electronic databases from their inception to May 2021: Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese BioMedical Literature, and WanFang database are the three Chinese language databases. Web of Science, PubMed, Cochrane Library, and EMBASE are the four English language databases. The authors will also perform a manual search through the bibliographies in related literature to find extra articles and ongoing studies. Two independent authors will assess the literature according to an inclusion criteria, use a specialized data collection table to extract data, and use the Cochrane ‘Risk of bias’ tool for evaluating any possible bias risk in the selected articles. Data synthesis and statistical operations are completed with the RevMan software (v. 5.3). RESULTS: The present systematic analysis provides a rationalized synthesis of existing evidence related to the use of prophylactic chemotherapy in the treatment of HM. CONCLUSION: Our findings will summarize the current evidences for prophylactic chemotherapy in the treatment of HM. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: An ethics approval is nonrequired because pre published results will be used. REGISTRATION NUMBER: DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/6QV52 (https://osf.io/6qv52/)