A meta-analysis of lentinan injection combined with chemotherapy in the treatment of nonsmall cell lung cancer.

OBJECTIVE

To systematic review and analysis the clinical efficacy and toxicity of lentinan injection combined with chemotherapy in the treatment of nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The databases of PubMed and CNKI were electronic searched with the free text word of lung cancer/NSCLC and lentinan. The prospective clinical study reporting the clinical efficacy and safety of lentinan injection combined with chemotherapy in the treatment of NSCLC were reviewed and included in this meta-analysis. The combined treatment efficacy and toxicity of lentinan injection combined with chemotherapy were pooled by Stata 11.0 software.

RESULTS

Twelve clinical studies of lentinan injection combined with chemotherapy in the treatment of NSCLC with 458 controls and 492 NSCLCs patients were finally included in this meta-analysis. The pooled results indicated that the objective response rate was significant improved in the lentinan injection combined chemotherapy group compared with chemotherapy group only (relative risk [RR] = 1.31, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.14-1.52). The chemotherapy-related toxicity of III/IV gastrointestinal reaction (RR = 0.54, 95% CI: 0.43-0.68) and III/IV granulocytopenia (RR = 0.65, 95% CI: 0.51-0.70) were significant decreased in the combined group.

CONCLUSION

Lentinan injection combined chemotherapy significant increase the objective response rate and decreased the chemotherapy-related toxicity.