title: Whole brain radiotherapy plus chemotherapy in the treatment of brain metastases from lung cancer: a meta-analysis of 19 randomized controlled trails.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the efficacy and safety of whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) plus chemotherapy versus WBRT alone for treating brain metastases (BM) from lung cancer by performing a meta-analysis based on randomized controlled trials (RCTs).
  
  
  METHODS
  The PubMed, Embase, CENTRAL, ASCO, ESMO, CBM, CNKI, and VIP databases were searched for relevant RCTs performed between January 2000 and March 2012. After quality assessment and data extraction, the meta-analysis was performed using the RevMan 5.1 software, with funnel plot evaluation of publication bias.
  
  
  RESULTS
  19 RCTs involving 1,343 patients were included. The meta-analyses demonstrated that compared to WBRT alone, WBRT plus chemotherapy was more effective with regard to the objective response rate (OR = 2.30, 95% CI = 1.79-2.98; P < 0.001); however, the incidences of gastrointestinal reactions (RR = 3.82, 95% CI = 2.33-6.28, P <0.001), bone marrow suppression (RR = 5.49, 95% CI = 3.65-8.25, P < 0.001), thrombocytopenia (RR = 5.83, 95% CI = 0.39-86.59; P = 0.20), leukopenia (RR = 3.13, 95% CI = 1.77-5.51; P < 0.001), and neutropenia (RR = 2.75, 95% CI = 1.61-4.68; P < 0.001) in patients treated with WBRT plus chemotherapy were higher than with WBRT alone. There was no obvious publication bias detected.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  WBRT plus chemotherapy can obviously improve total efficacy rate, but also increases the incidence of adverse reactions compared to WBRT alone. From the limitations of this study, more large-scale, high-quality RCTs are suggested for further verification.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pulmonary Neoplasms Internal Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Academy of the Military Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Wen-Jing
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Xian-Tao
authors.initials: XT
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.forename: Hai-Feng
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.forename: Hong-Jun
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Wei-Jing
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Bi
authors.forename: Xiao-Qing
authors.initials: XQ
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000556:secondary* / Q000628:therapy*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology* / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000628:therapy*; D008875:Middle Aged; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D055815:Young Adult