Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether combined Induction chemotherapy (IC) with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) for stage III or IV locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (LA-NPC) could achieve better survival benefits than CCRT alone.
Materials and methods: Only randomized controlled trials were included in this study. There were two treatment regiments (IC + CCRT and CCRT alone) recruited for analysis. The end points of this meta-analysis were overall survival (OS), locoregional recurrence-free survival (LRFS), and distant metastases-free survival (DMFS). Then we performed a traditional meta-analysis.
Results: Seven studies were included, including 2628 patients. Compared with using CCRT alone, IC + CCRT has better effects on overall survival (OS) [HR = 0.75, 95% CI = 0.63-0.89], locoregional recurrence-free survival (LRFS) [HR = 0.70, 95% CI = 0.56-0.86] and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) [HR = 0.65, 95% CI = 0.54-0.78]. Of note, the addition of IC also increases the incidence of toxic reactions and patient discomfort.
Conclusion: IC + CCRT provided better survival benefits than CCRT alone. However, patients also had a higher incidence of toxic reactions with combination therapy.
Keywords: Concurrent chemoradiotherapy; Induction chemotherapy; Meta-analysis; Nasopharyngeal carcinoma; Toxicity.
Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Inc.