Effects of metformin on the survival in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer: a meta-analysis / 肿瘤研究与临床

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the effects of metformin on the survival of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).Methods:PubMed, EMbase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang and other databases were searched from the beginning of database construction to February 2020, relevant literatures were screened and included, and the characteristics of the literatures were extracted. RevMan 5.3 software was used to analyze progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), hazard ratio(HR) and 95% CI; the heterogeneity and publication bias were also evaluated. Results:A total of 11 studies were enrolled, and metformin did not improve PFS in patients with advanced NSCLC ( HR = 0.80, 95% CI 0.58-1.09, P = 0.15). The subgroup analysis results of different treatment strategies showed that metformin combined with tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) ( HR = 0.71, 95% CI 0.32-1.57, P = 0.39), chemoradiotherapy ( HR = 0.97, 95% CI 0.59-1.61, P = 0.92), and immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) ( HR = 0.64, 95% CI 0.35-1.16, P = 0.14) did not improve the PFS. Metformin improved OS in patients with advanced NSCLC ( HR = 0.84, 95% CI 0.75-0.93, P = 0.001). Metformin combined with TKI ( HR = 0.68, 95% CI 0.38- 1.22, P = 0.19) and ICI ( HR =0.80, 95% CI 0.39-1.63, P = 0.54) did not improve OS of patients, while metformin combined with chemoradiotherapy could improve OS ( HR = 0.85, 95% CI 0.78-0.93, P < 0.01). No evidence of publication bias was shown in the funnel plot analysis. Conclusions:Metformin can prolong OS time in patients with advanced NSCLC, especially in patients undergoing metformin combined with radiotherapy and chemotherapy, or concurrent chemoradiotherapy.