Use of taxane-containing induction chemotherapy in combination with concurrent chemoradiotherapy in Chinese patients with locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma: A meta-analysis

Taxane-containing induction chemotherapy (IC) regimens in combination with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) have been compared with non-taxane-containing IC combined with CCRT in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in Chinese patients with advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). This meta-analysis aimed to systematically evaluate their clinical efficacy and safety profiling in this ethnic population.The electronic databases, PubMed, Embase, MEDLINE, and Chinese Biomedical Database, were searched for eligible studies. The outcomes included overall response rate (ORR), 1-year survival rate, and different types of adverse events. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to evaluate the strength of the associations.A total of 12 RCTs (representing 835 patients) were identified. The pooled analysis showed that taxane-containing regimens had a significant improvement in ORR for nasopharyngeal lesion (OR =4.57, 95% CI =1.14-18.30, P=0.032, z=2.15) but not in cervical lymph nodes (OR =1.23, 95% CI =0.65-2.36, P=0.532, z=0.64) and in 1-year survival rates (OR =1.19, 95% CI =0.10-14.82, P=0.893, z=0.13) compared with non-taxane-containing regimens. Regarding the adverse events and toxicities, grade 3-4 leukopenia and neutropenia were significantly different between the two groups (P<0.001) in favor of the non-taxane-containing regimens, but grade 3-4 vomiting was significantly different between the two groups (P<0.005) in favor of the taxane-containing regimens.When combined with CCRT, taxane-containing IC regimens may be more efficient for short-term local control in Chinese patients with locally advanced NPC than the non-taxane-containing IC regimens. Moreover, the major toxic effects, which were bone marrow suppression, could be tolerated by majority of patients. More long-term follow-up and high-quality trials of NPC are needed to validate our findings.