A meta-analysis of Tanreqing injection in the preventive effect of radiation pneumonitis

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of Tanreqing Injection for the preventive of radiation pneumonitis. Methods Retrieving literatures in CNKI, CBM,VIP and WanFang, Medline, Google Scholar database from January 2000 to July 2013.Two researchers extracted and evaluated the quality of all the data independently.RevMan 5.2 software was used for statistical analysis. Results 11 papers and 939 patients were involved in the study. Meta analysis showed statistical difference for the index of marked efficacy between Tanreqing group and radiation group with OR（95%CI）is 0.42（0.30, 0.57）. Significant difference was found for the index of more than Grade 3 of radiation pneumonitis, radiation pulmonary fibrosis with OR（95% CI） 0.19（0.11, 0.35）, 0.35（0.23, 0.53）, respectively（P=0.65）. Statistical difference was observed for the index of the dose of radiation and the average onset time of radiation pneumonitis with OR（95%CI） 7.39（4.41, 10.38） and 7.72（6.84, 8.61） respectively. Conclusion Meta analysis based on current limited clinical research results preliminary shows that. Tanreqing injection has a good clinical efficacy for the preventive effect of radiation pneumonitis. The use of Tanreqing injection could reduce the rate of more than Grade 3 of radiation pneumonitis as well as radiation pulmonary fibrosis, extend the onset time and increase the dose which leads to radiation pneumonitis. Key words: Tanreqing injection; Radiation pneumonitis; Pulmonary fibrosis; Meta-Analysis