TY - JOUR
T1 - Interferon alpha adjuvant therapy in patients with high-risk melanoma
T2 - A systematic review and meta-analysis
AU - Mocellin, Simone
AU - Pasquali, Sandro
AU - Rossi, Carlo R.
AU - Nitti, Donato
PY - 2010/4
Y1 - 2010/4
N2 - BackgroundBased on previous meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), the use of interferon alpha (IFN-α) in the adjuvant setting improves disease-free survival (DFS) in patients with high-risk cutaneous melanoma. However, RCTs have yielded conflicting data on the effect of IFN-α on overall survival (OS).MethodsWe conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to examine the effect of IFN-α on DFS and OS in patients with high-risk cutaneous melanoma. The systematic review was performed by searching MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cancerlit, Cochrane, ISI Web of Science, and ASCO databases. The meta-analysis was performed using time-to-event data from which hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of DFS and OS were estimated. Subgroup and meta-regression analyses to investigate the effect of dose and treatment duration were also performed. Statistical tests were two-sided.ResultsThe meta-analysis included 14 RCTs, published between 1990 and 2008, and involved 8122 patients, of which 4362 patients were allocated to the IFN-α arm. IFN-α alone was compared with observation in 12 of the 14 trials, and 17 comparisons (IFN-α vs comparator) were generated in total. IFN-α treatment was associated with a statistically significant improvement in DFS in 10 of the 17 comparisons (HR for disease recurrence = 0.82, 95% CI = 0.77 to 0.87; P
AB - BackgroundBased on previous meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), the use of interferon alpha (IFN-α) in the adjuvant setting improves disease-free survival (DFS) in patients with high-risk cutaneous melanoma. However, RCTs have yielded conflicting data on the effect of IFN-α on overall survival (OS).MethodsWe conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to examine the effect of IFN-α on DFS and OS in patients with high-risk cutaneous melanoma. The systematic review was performed by searching MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cancerlit, Cochrane, ISI Web of Science, and ASCO databases. The meta-analysis was performed using time-to-event data from which hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of DFS and OS were estimated. Subgroup and meta-regression analyses to investigate the effect of dose and treatment duration were also performed. Statistical tests were two-sided.ResultsThe meta-analysis included 14 RCTs, published between 1990 and 2008, and involved 8122 patients, of which 4362 patients were allocated to the IFN-α arm. IFN-α alone was compared with observation in 12 of the 14 trials, and 17 comparisons (IFN-α vs comparator) were generated in total. IFN-α treatment was associated with a statistically significant improvement in DFS in 10 of the 17 comparisons (HR for disease recurrence = 0.82, 95% CI = 0.77 to 0.87; P
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U2 - 10.1093/jnci/djq009
DO - 10.1093/jnci/djq009
M3 - Article
C2 - 20179267
AN - SCOPUS:77950576363
VL - 102
SP - 493
EP - 501
JO - Journal of the National Cancer Institute
JF - Journal of the National Cancer Institute
SN - 0027-8874
IS - 7
ER -