A systematic analysis in efficacy and safety of nimotuzumab combined with chemoradiotherapy in treatment of advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Objective To analyze the clinical effect of nitorzumab injection combined with chemoradiotherapy in the treatment of advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Methods The databases, such as CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, China Biology Medicine (CBM), PubMed, Cochrane Library, Wiley Online Library, and Google Academic were searched. The randomized controlled trials (RCT) of nimotuzumab combined with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (experimental group) and concurrent chemoradiotherapy (control group) were searched. The between-group differences of objective remission rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), and drug-related adverse reactions were analyzed by RevMan5.3 software. Results Totally, 11 studies were included in meta-analysis, including 655 patients. All 11 articles mentioned random grouping and no blind method was used. The objective remission rate, disease control rate, and adverse drug reactions are given in 11 articles. In this study, 11 literatures were analyzed by fixed effect model after heterogeneity and sensitivity analysis. The meta analysis showed that in 10 literatures, the objective remission rate and disease control rate of patients in the experimental group were significantly higher than those in the control group (RR = 1.32, 95% CI: 1.2-1.45, Z = 5.72, P < 0.00001); (RR = 1.07, 95% CI: 1.02-1.11, Z = 3.04, P = 0.002 < 0.01. There was no significant difference in adverse reactions between the two groups (RR = 0.95, 95% CI: 0.79-1.15, Z = 0.52, P = 0.6 > 0.05). Conclusion The efficacy and safety of nituozumab injection combined with concurrent chemoradiotherapy are reliable and definite.