Table 2.

Effect of Modified Radiotherapy Compared With Conventional Radiotherapy on Toxicity Events

Severe Toxicity	Availability		Toxicity Rate in Control Arm (%)	Toxicity Rate in Experimental Arm (%)*	Result		P Efficacy	I2 (%)	P Heterogeneity
	No. of Trials	No. of Patients			OR	95% CI
Non–small-cell lung cancer
Acute toxicity
Esophageal	10	1,968	9	19	2.44	1.90 to 3.14	< .001	57	.01†
Pulmonary	9	1,390	7	5	0.67	0.42 to 1.05	.08	0	.65
Cardiac	6	940	1	1	1.33	0.46 to 3.83	.59	0	.92
Hematologic‡	5	607	34	29	0.79	0.48 to 1.32	.38	0	.54
Neutrophils	5	600	33	28	0.80	0.46 to 1.40	.44	3	.39
Platelets	5	595	13	8	0.55	0.32 to 0.96	.03	0	.98
Hemoglobin	6	677	1	1	1.36	0.46 to 4.08	.58	0	.86
Late toxicity
Pulmonary	7	866	15	16	1.07	0.73 to 1.56	.73	0	.56
Esophageal	7	861	3	4	1.24	0.61 to 2.56	.55	0	.89
Cardiac	4	515	1	1	1.49	0.40 to 5.60	.55	0	.96
Any of above	4	533	13	16	1.27	0.79 to 2.06	.33	0	.97
Small-cell lung cancer
Acute esophageal	2	667	12	25	2.41	1.62 to 3.59	< .001	0	.99
Acute pulmonary	2	675	5	6	1.32	0.69 to 2.51	.40	0	.33
Acute cardiac	2	670	1	3	2.96	1.13 to 7.73	.03	0	.76
Hematologic§	2	674	83	86	1.22	0.81 to 1.86	.34	0	.36
Neutrophils	2	643	84	87	1.31	0.84 to 2.04	.23	0	.70
Platelets	2	666	38	30	0.70	0.50 to 0.98	.04	36	.21
Hemoglobin	2	673	18	19	1.06	0.71 to 1.59	.76	0	.35

Abbreviation: OR, odds ratio.

^*See Statistical Considerations section in the text for the methods used to compute the rate in the experimental arm.

^†Significant interaction: very accelerated radiotherapy is more toxic than other radiotherapy types (interaction test, P = .001, Data Supplement).

^‡Including three trials (456 patients) with chemotherapy.

^§Chemotherapy treatment was administered in the two small-cell lung cancer trials.