Clinical Application of Tumor Vascular Disrupting Therapy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

PURPOSE: The occurrence, progression, invasion and metastasis of tumors depend on a tumor vascular network. Vascular disrupting agents (VDAs) are a new class of drugs targeting the tumor vasculature, by blocking the existing tumor blood vessels. However, there is no clear consensus on the clinical efficacy of tumor vascular disrupting therapy. In this study, we performed the first systematic review and meta-analysis of published clinical trials focused on tumor vascular disrupting therapies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We searched PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library to identify clinical trials that used VDAs to treat tumors. After literature screening and data extraction, according to inclusion and exclusion labels, meta-analysis was performed using RevMan5.3 software. RESULTS: In this meta-analysis, we included 2659 patients from eight randomized controlled trials involving non-small-cell lung cancer, prostate, epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, and primary peritoneal carcinoma. Compared with the control arm, the experimental arm exhibited an effective improvement of 0.5-year and 1-year survival, as well as the 6-month progression-free survival rate. There was no significant difference between patients in the experimental compared to the control arm with respect to objective response and disease control rates, and 12-month progression-free survival. CONCLUSION: Vascular disrupting therapy can effectively prolong the survival of cancer patients. However, for indicators of short-term efficacy, such as objective response rate and disease control rate, there is still a lack of high-quality, large-scale clinical trial data to confirm the effectiveness of VDAs.