CHEMOTHERAPY IN ADVANCED OVARIAN-CANCER - 4 SYSTEMATIC METAANALYSES OF INDIVIDUAL PATIENT DATA FROM 39 RANDOMIZED TRIALS

The purpose of this systematic study was to provide an up to date and reliable quantitative summary of the relative benefits of various type s of chemotherapy (non-platinum vs platinum, single-agent vs combinati on and carboplatin vs cisplatin) in the treatment of advanced ovarian cancer. Also, to investigate whether well-defined patient subgroups be nefit more or less from cisplatin- or carboplatin-based therapy. Meta- analyses were based on updated individual patient data from all availa ble randomized controlled trials (published and unpublished), includin g 37 trials, 5667 patients and 4664 deaths. The results suggest that p latinum-based chemotherapy is better than nonplatinum therapy, show a trend in favour of platinum combinations over single-agent platinum, a nd suggest that cisplatin and carboplatin are equally effective. There is no good evidence that cisplatin is more or less effective than car boplatin in any particular subgroup of patients.