Meta analysis of treatment for stage IE~IIE extranodal natural killer /T cell lymphomas in China

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate early treatment for extranodal natural killer/T cell lymphoma (ENK/TCL) in China and provide reference for clinical treatment of these patients. Methods: Computer-based retrieval was performed in PubMed, CNKI, CBM, VIP and WanFang Data to search for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of treatment for early ENK/TCL, and a meta-analysis was conducted with RevMan 5.0 software. Results: A total of 11 RCTs, including 871 patients, were selected, of which the first radiotherapy had a higher complete response (CR) than the first chemotherapy [OR=14.16, 95%CI (8.68, 23.10), P<0.00001] and CR was not different between combined treatment group and radiotherapy group [OR=1.86, 95%CI (0.47, 3.58), P=0.61], but long-term survival rate was higher with combined treatment[OR=1.88, 95%CI (1.09, 3.19), P=0.02]. No difference in survival rate was observed between radio-chemotherapy and chemo-radiotherapy groups [OR=1.11, 95%CI (0.73, 1.69), P=0.63]. Conclusions: Radiotherapy is of great significance in the treatment of early ENK/TCL, but combined therapy could further enhance long-term survival rate of patients. This conclusion still requires further confirmation using RCTs with high quality and large sample size.