| Objectiv: To assess effectiveness of chemotherapy versus control in treating the soft tissue sarcoma Methods: We searched the MEDLINE(1966～2009.12),EMBASE (1984～2009.12),OVID database(1980～2009.12),CBMdisc(1980～2009.12), Cochrane Library Clinical Trial database, and hand searched the Journal of Chinese Oncology, Journal of Chinese Clinical Oncology, Tumor. The quality of the included studies was evaluated by two reviewers and meta-analysis performed for the results of the homogenous studies. Results: Six studies involving 836 participants related to primary, high grade, nonmetastatic soft tissue sarcoma were included. All included studies were unclear in reporting randomization and blinding, all studies reported the number and the reason of withdraw, and baseline conditions of all studies were compared. Meta-analysis based on included studies showed that there was no advantage in, 5-year OS[RR 0.90,95% CI(0.76,1.06)], Local Recurrence[OR 0.69,95% CI(0.36,1.32)], Distant Recurrence[OR 0.83,95% CI(0.62,1.11)], Overall Recurrence [RR 0.91,95% CI(0.78,1.06)]in statistic significance between chemotherapy group and control protocol. But 5-yaer DFS [RR 0.73,95% CI(0.63,0.86)] chemotherapy group is better than control group[P=0.0001 ,RR 0.73,95% CI(0.63,0.86)]. Conclusions: There is no advantage for chemotherapy group over control group in 5-year OS, Local Recurrence, Distant Recurrence and Overall Recurrence; Due to risk of selection bias, performance bias and published bias, the evidence is not strong enough to judge whether chemotherapy is better than control in treating soft tissue sarcoma. Our conclusions suggest that larger-scale randomized trials should be performed in future. |
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