Comparison of first line chemotherapy regimens for advanced soft tissue sarcoma: a network meta-analysis

Abstract

The best first line chemotherapy regimen for advanced soft tissue sarcoma (ASTS) remains inconclusive. Here, we aimed to find the best first line chemotherapy regimen by performing a network meta-analysis. Regimens were compared in terms of overall survival (OS), overall response rate(ORR), progression free survival (PFS), and toxicity. Twenty-eight eligible trials with a total of 6928 patients were included. EC (epirubicin + cisplatin) was considered as the better regimen for advanced STS with probability of 61.9% in terms of OS. However, this regimen only have been evaluated in a single small trial and tend to have more hematological toxicities than doxorubicin. No regimen was superior to doxorubicin with significant statistical difference in terms of PFS and ORR, even aldoxorubicin behaved better than doxorubicin in the network analysis. Collectively, doxorubicin still can be selected preferentially for the first line chemotherapy for patients.

Keywords:

• Advanced soft tissue sarcoma
• ASTS
• first line chemotherapy
• effect
• network meta-analysis
• NMA

Acknowledgments

The authors appreciate all the patients included in this study.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81702392 to LZ and 81874061 to TZ).