Bulletin du cancer
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Randomized Controlled Trial Meta Analysis Comparative Study Clinical Trial
[Small cell lung carcinoma: role of thoracic irradiation and its timing in relation to chemotherapy].
Combined modality therapy is of great importance in the management of small cell lung cancer. Randomized studies of the design chemotherapy with or without thoracic irradiation are required to demonstrate the impact of radiotherapy on rates of survival, local control and adverse effects. The method of meta-analysis allows one to analyse in a single study a set of different clinical trials of the same design. ⋯ The overall survival rate was better in the "early radiotherapy" arm, with a median survival of 21 months and on overall survival rate of 20% at 5 years, compared to a median of 16 months and a 5 years survival of 11% in the "late radiotherapy" arm. The survival curves are significantly different by the log rank (P = 0.008) and Wilcoxon (P = 0.005) tests, in favour of "early radiotherapy". After allowing for prognostic factors (sex, ECOG performance status) by the Cox model, the "early" arm retains a statistically significant advantage (P = 0.006).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)