Comparison of high-and standard-dose radiotherapy during definitive concurrent chemoradiotherapy for esophageal cancer: a meta-analysis / 中华放射肿瘤学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To compare the efficacy and safety of high- and standard-dose radiotherapy (HD-RT vs. SD-RT) during definitive concurrent chemoradiotherapy (dCCRT) for esophageal cancer (EC), aiming to assess the advantages and disadvantages of these two radiotherapy doses when using modern radiotherapy techniques. Methods:Literature review was conducted from PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CNKI, Wanfang database, and abstracts of the American Society of Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) and the European Society of Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO). Randomized controlled trials (RCT) comparing high-dose radiotherapy (HD-RT: ≥59.4 Gy,1.8 Gy per time) with standard-dose radiotherapy (SD-RT: 50 Gy, 2 Gy per time, or 50.4 Gy, 1.8 Gy per time) during dCCRT for EC were included. The retrieval time was from the establishment of the database to January 1, 2023. The meta-analysis was performed using Stata 16.0 software.Results:A total of 1 158 patients from 5 RCT that meet the inclusion criteria were finally included. In 4 RCT, subgroup analysis of 940 patients using modern radiotherapy techniques were performed. Patients in the HD-RT and SD-RT groups had similar 1-, 2-, and 3-year overall survival (OS)( RR=1.03, 95% CI=0.86-1.22, P=0.757; RR=1.05, 95% CI=0.94-1.17, P=0.433; RR=1.05, 95% CI=0.96-1.14, P=0.314; respectively) and 2- and 3-year locoregional progression-free survival (LRPFS) ( RR=0.94, 95% CI=0.82-1.08, P=0.390; RR=0.96, 95% CI=0.86-1.09, P=0.560; respectively). Patients in the HD-RT group had a higher incidence of grade ≥ 3 treatment-related adverse reactions rates ( OR=1.35, 95% CI=1.03-1.77, P=0.029) and treatment-related death rates ( OR=1.66, 95% CI=0.97-2.83, P=0.062) compared with their counterparts in the SD-RT group. In the subgroup analysis using modern radiotherapy techniques, HD-RT did not improve LRPFS compared to SD-RT, but increased the incidence of adverse reactions, and yielded no OS benefit. Conclusions:Whether modern precision radiation therapy is employed or not, SD-RT yields similar LRPFS and OS, and lower grade ≥ 3 treatment-related adverse reactions rates compared with HD-RT. Therefore, standard-dose (50 Gy, 2 Gy per time, or 50.4 Gy, 1.8 Gy per time) should be considered as the recommended dose in dCCRT for EC. Further RCT are needed to verify our conclusions.