ADJUVANT CHEMOTHERAPY FOR SOFT-TISSUE SARCOMA - REVIEW AND METAANALYSIS OF THE PUBLISHED RESULTS OF RANDOMIZED CLINICAL-TRIALS

Fifteen published randomised trials comparing adjuvant chemotherapy wi th no chemotherapy in soft-tissue sarcoma (STS) were identified (1546 patients). A qualitative review and a meta-analysis of this published literature were performed. With the qualitative review it was not poss ible to synthesise the apparently conflicting results of individual tr ials. The meta-analysis of the published data suggests an improvement in survival at 2 years (OR = 0.73, 95% CI = 0.53-0.99, P = 0.044) and at 5 years (OR = 0.59, 95% CI = 0.45-0.78, P = 0.0002) in favour of ch emotherapy. However, the assumptions and approximations required to co nduct this quantitative summary demand that the results are interprete d with caution. The only reliable means of assessing the current evide nce on whether adjuvant chemotherapy has a role in the treatment of pa tients with STS, is to collect, check and reanalyse individual patient s data (IPD) from each trial centrally, and formally combine the resul ts in a stratified time-to-event analysis. Such an IPD analysis is cur rently being undertaken by an international collaborative group.