The efficacy and adverse reactions of DCF and FOLFOXs regimens for patients with advanced gastric cancer in China: a meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Gastric cancer is a malignant tumor originating from the gastric mucosal epithelium, ranking fourth in the incidence of male malignant tumors and third in mortality rate. The aim of this study is to investigate the efficacy and adverse reactions of DCF and FOLFOXs regimens in the treatment of advanced gastric cancer. METHODS: Relevant prospective clinical controlled studies were retrieved from WanFang Data, CBM, CNKI, PubMed, The Cochrane Library and Embase databases and meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 software. RESULTS: The effective rates of DCF group and FOLFOXs group were basically the same (RR 1.06, 95% CI: 0.92–1.23, P=0.41). The incidence of nausea and vomiting (RR 1.36, 95% CI: 1.15–1.60), anemia (RR 2.04, 95% CI: 1.55–2.68), thrombocytopenia (RR 1.52, 95% CI: 1.15–2.01) and leukopenia (RR 1.70, 95% CI: 1.44–2.01) with FOLFOXs regimen were significantly lower than DCF regimen, while the incidence of sensory neurotoxicity was significantly higher than DCF regimen (RR 0.53, 95% CI: 0.38–0.74). There were no significant differences in efficacy, ORR and DCR between different doses in the FOLFOXs group (P=0.233). CONCLUSIONS: The efficacy of FOLFOXs regimen was comparable to that of DCF regimen in the treatment of advanced gastric cancer, but the incidence of adverse reactions was significantly lower, and there were no significant differences between different therapeutic doses.