[Preoperative induction chemotherapy for resectable stage IIIA non-small-cell lung cancer: a meta-analysis of 13 double-blind, randomized clinical trials.].

BACKGROUND: The role of Preoperative chemotherapy in patients with resected nonsmall-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains unclear, this study is aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of Preoperative chemotherapy in patients with resected non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), by performing a meta-analysis of relevant trials.
METHODS: Searching the literature from MEDLINE, pubmed, OVID, The Cochrane library, Cancerlit, Clinicaltrials.gov, ASCO, ESMO and CBM database, a meta-analysis was carried out to compare patients with NSCLC receiving chemotherapy before surgery with those undergoing surgery alone. The odds ratio (OR) was estimated to assess the survival advantage of Preoperative chemotherapy.
RESULTS: Thirteen eligible randomized controlled trials (RCT) were identified, including 2561 patients, the meta-analysis showed preoperative chemotherapy improved survival with a OR of 0.80 (95% confidence interval, 0.68-0.94; P =0.008) in a subset analysis patients with IIIa stage also benefit from the preoperative chemotherapy. There was no evidence of statistical heterogeneity.
CONCLUSIONS: This analysis shows a significant benefit of preoperative chemotherapy and is currently the best estimate of the effectiveness of this therapy.