A meta-analysis of Kang`ai injection combined with chemotherapy in the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Kang`ai injection combined with chemotherapy in the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) by meta-analysis. Electronic search of the Cochrane library, PubMed, EMBASE, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), VIP Database for Chinese Technical Periodicals (VIP), and Wanfang Database was conducted to collect appropriate studies about Kang`ai injection combined with chemotherapy versus chemotherapy alone in the treatment of NSCLC. All data were analyzed by using RevMan 5.2 software provided by Cochrane, which involved the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) calculated with fixed-effect models according to the heterogeneity test. Eighteen studies were included in this meta-analysis. The meta-analysis showed that Kang`ai injection combined with chemotherapy could enhance the efficacy of the tumor response (OR=1.51, 95% CI: 1.23-1.85, Z=3.94, P<0.0001), improve the quality of life (OR=3.37, 95% CI: 2.71-4.20, Z=10.86, P<0.00001), alleviate the adverse reaction of digestive tract (OR=0.42, 95% CI: 0.32-0.55, Z=6.34, P<0.00001) and reduce the risk of the bone marrow suppression (OR=0.38, 95% CI: 0.29-0.49, Z=7.37, P<0.00001) compared with chemotherapy alone. Asymmetries were observed in funnel plots, which indicated an evidence of publication bias. Kang`ai injection combined with chemotherapy can enhance the short-term efficacy, improve the quality of life, and alleviate the chemotherapy-induced adverse reaction in the treatment of advanced NSCLC, although these results need to be further confirmed by more high-quality trials.