Efficacy of concurrent chemoradiotherapy with S-1 vs. radiotherapy alone for elderly patients with esophageal cancer: a meta-analysis / 中华放射肿瘤学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To evaluate the efficacy of concurrent radiotherapy combined with S-1 (CCRT) versus radiotherapy (RT) alone in elderly patients with esophageal cancer by Meta-analysis.Methods:The Cochrane Library, PubMed, Web of science, EMbase, CBM, CNKI, VIP and Wanfang database were searched. The eligible studies were subject to evaluation of methodological quality. The Meta-analysis was performed by the Revman 5.3 software.Results:A total of 1693 patients were enrolled in 23 studies. The results showed that CCRT increased the incidence of CR [ OR=2.08,95% CI (1.66-2.61), P<0.001] and PR [ OR=1.31,95% CI (1.08-1.60), P=0.007] and total response rate [ OR=2.99,95% CI (2.37-3.77), P<0.001]. Furthermore, CCRT improved the 1-year survival rate [ OR=2.56, 95% CI (1.94-3.38), P<0.001] and 2-year survival rate [ OR=2.33, 95% CI (1.77-3.08), P<0.001]. Meanwhile, CCRT reduced the incidence of leucopenia, thrombocytopenia, radioactive esophagitis, nausea and vomiting (all P<0.05), but there was no significant difference in the incidence of anemia and radiation pneumonia between two groups (both P>0.05). Conclusions:Available evidence suggests that CCRT combined with S-1 can improve therapeutic efficacy and prolong survival time in elderly patients with esophageal cancer, but CCRT may increase the incidence of treatment-related side effects. Due to the limitations of the number and quality of the included studies, the above conclusions need to be verified by more high-quality studies.