Contemporary treatment and outcome of sinonasal undifferentiated carcinoma: A meta-analysis

Induction chemotherapy (IC) recently gained importance for treatment of sinonasal undifferentiated carcinoma (SNUC). We analyzed our SNUC cases and performed a meta-analysis with focus on survival-rates stratified by treatment. SNUC cases at our institution were retrospectively evaluated. A systematic literature review was conducted to analyze treatment and outcome of SNUC. To calculate 5-year and 2-year overall survival (OS), individual patient data (IPD) were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier estimators and Cox proportional hazard regression to identify associations between types of therapy and survival. A random effects model for pooled estimates of 5-year survival was applied to studies without IPD data. Five-year OS of our SNUC cases (n = 9) was 44.4%. The IPD analysis (n = 192) showed a significantly better 5-year OS for patients who received induction chemotherapy (72.6% vs. 44.5%). The pooled 5-year OS of 13 studies identified in the literature search was 43.8%. IC should be considered in every patient diagnosed with SNUC.