title: Chemotherapy combined with target drugs in the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer: a meta-analysis based on Chinese patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Colorectal carcinoma is one of most diagnosed solid malignant carcinoma. The chemotherapy combined with target drugs in the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer in not conclusive.
  
  
  METHODS
  The clinical studies reporting the activity and adverse events between chemotherapy alone versus chemotherapy combined with anti-epidermal growth factor receptor drugs were screened in the databases of Medline, the Cochrane Library, Wanfang and CNKI and included in this meta-analysis. The risk ratio (RR) and its 95% confidence interval (CI) for treatment response and adverse events were pooled by random or fixed effect model.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 10 clinical studies reporting chemotherapy combined with the target in the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer were included in this study. The pooled RR was 3.26 (95% CI: 1.74-6.11, P < 0.05), 1.49 (95% CI: 1.23-1.80) and 1.65 (95% CI: 1.37-1.98) for complete response (CR), partial response and objective response rate, respectively. For nausea and vomiting events, the RR was 1.62 (95% CI: 1.33-1.97, P < 0.05) indicating higher incidence of nausea and vomiting was observed in the combined group compared with chemotherapy alone. However, the diarrhea (RR = 1.10, 95% CI: 0.86-1.42, P > 0.05), liver function damage (RR = 1.03, 95% CI: 0.74-1.42), myelosuppression (RR = 1.04, 95% CI: 0.83-1.31) and neurotoxicity (RR = 1.12, 95% CI: 0.93-1.35) were not different between the two groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  For Chinese patients with advanced colorectal cancer, chemotherapy combined with target drug can improve the response rate, but also increase the risk of nausea and vomiting.
authors.forename: Q H
authors.initials: QH
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: X L
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: X L
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Che
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Weng
authors.forename: J X
authors.initials: JX
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Quzhou People's Hospital, Quzhou 324000, Zhejiang Province, China.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zou
mesh_terms: D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D044466:Asian People; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D058990:Molecular Targeted Therapy; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors*; D011379:Prognosis
chemical_list: D009363:Neoplasm Proteins