Table 3. Subgroup analyses for the treatment effect on overall survival of neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy versus concurrent chemoradiotherapy with or without adjuvant chemotherapy for locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
Factors | Subgroups | Availability | Effect | Heterogeneity | Interaction | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Trials (N) | Patients (N) | HR (95% CI) | P value | I2 | P value | P value | |||
Duration of follow-up | |||||||||
<48 months | 4 | 1327 | 0.62(0.47-0.84) | 0.002 | 0.0 | 0.927 | 0.960 | ||
>48 months | 3 | 378 | 0.60(0.19-1.87) | 0.380 | 59.6 | 0.084 | |||
Radiotherapy techniquea | |||||||||
Conventional radiotherapy | 3 | 377 | 0.59(0.38-0.92) | 0.021 | 32.7 | 0.226 | 0.285 | ||
IMRT/3DCRT | 4 | 1328 | 0.67(0.49-0.93) | 0.015 | 0.0 | 0.492 | |||
Sample size | |||||||||
<150 patients | 3 | 318 | 0.62(0.29-1.32) | 0.216 | 59.0 | 0.087 | 0.999 | ||
>150 patients | 4 | 1387 | 0.62(0.45-0.85) | 0.003 | 0.0 | 0.912 | |||
CCRT timingb | |||||||||
q1wk | 4 | 490 | 0.65(0.34-1.25) | 0.198 | 39.5 | 0.175 | 0.872 | ||
q3wk | 3 | 1215 | 0.61(0.45-0.84) | 0.003 | 0.0 | 0.826 | |||
Method of data extractionc | |||||||||
Directly reported | 4 | 1180 | 0.61(0.44-0.85) | 0.003 | 0.0 | 0.999 | 0.755 | ||
Indirect method | 3 | 525 | 0.70(0.45-1.09) | 0.112 | 44.1 | 0.147 | |||
IC regimen | |||||||||
Two drugs | 5 | 1392 | 0.59(0.44-0.78) | 0.000 | 0.0 | 0.543 | 0.119 | ||
Three drugs | 2 | 313 | 1.05(0.54-2.04) | 0.885 | 0.0 | 1.000 | |||
Taxol-included | 3 | 378 | 0.60(0.20-1.87) | 0.380 | 59.6 | 0.084 | 0.962 | ||
Non-taxol-included | 4 | 1327 | 0.62(0.47-0.84) | 0.002 | 0.0 | 0.927 | |||
AC | |||||||||
With | 1 | 802 | 0.64(0.49-0.83) | 0.005 | - | - | 0.798 | ||
Without | 6 | 903 | 0.70(0.50-0.98) | 0.040 | 0.0 | 0.420 | |||
Data source | |||||||||
Published | 6 | 1492 | 0.64(0.48-0.87) | 0.004 | 10.2 | 0.351 | 0.913 | ||
Unpublished | 1 | 213 | 0.69(0.25-1.93) | 0.883 | - | - |
Radiotherapy technique was classified as conventional radiotherapy or IMRT/3D-CRT based on the radiotherapy applied for at least 70% of the study population.
HR and its 95% CI were directly reported or indirectly calculated according to the method by Parmar et al. [46] in a trial.
Including one trial in which chemotherapy was administered every 4 weeks[20].
See Table 2 for abbreviations.