Meta-analysis of intraperitoneal chemotherapy for gastric cancer

AIM:TO assess the efficacy and safety of intraperitonealchemotherapy in patients undergoing curative resectionfor gastric cancer through literature review.METHODS:Medline (PubMed) (1980-2003/1),Embase(1980-2003/1),Cancerlit Database (1983-2003/1) andChinese Biomedicine Database (1990-2003/1) weresearched.Language was restricted to Chinese and English.The statistical analysis was performed by RevMan4.2 softwareprovided by the Cochrane Collaboration.The results wereexpressed with odds ratio for the categorical variables.RESULTS:Eleven trials involving 1 161 cases were included.The pooled odds ratio was 0.51,with a 95% confidence interval(0.40-0.65).Intraperitoneal chemotherapy may benefit thepatients after curative resection for locally advanced gastriccancer,and the combination of intraperitoneal chemotherapywith hyperthermia or activated carbon particles may providemore benefits to patients due to the enhanced antitumoractivity of drugs.Sensitivity analysis and fail-safe numbersuggested that the result was comparatively reliable.However,of 11 trials,only 3 studies were of high quality.CONCLUSION:Intraperitoneal chemotherapy after curativeresection for locally advanced gastric cancer may bebeneficial to patients.Continuous multicenter,randomized,double blind,rigorously designed trials should be conductedto draw definitive conclusions.