Herbal extract elemene intrathoracic injection in the treatment of lung cancer patients with malignant pleural effusion: A meta-anaylsis

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical efficacy of elemene intrapleural injection in the treatment of lung cancer with malignant pleural effusion by meta-analysis. Materials and Methods: PubMed (1960-2014.4), EMBASE (1980-2014.4) and CNKI (1979-2014.4) data bases were searched to identify the randomized controlled trials about elemene intrapleural injection in the treatment of malignant pleural effusion caused by lung cancer. The relativel risk (RR) was used to evaluated the the clinical efficacy of elemene intrapleural injection in the treatment of pleural effusion compared to other drugs. Results: A total of 1298 subjects with 14 studies were finally included in this meta-analysis. Meta-analysis showed that the objective response rate (ORR) in elemene group was much higher than that in other drugs group (RR =1.20, 95% CI:1.05-1.37, P = 0.008). We performed the sub-groups analysis according to the drugs used in the control group. And the subgroup analyzed demonstrated that the ORR in elemene group was higher than that in Cisplatin (DDP) and high sugar group with statistical difference (P < 0.05). But no statistical difference was found in the bleomycin and interleukin-2 [IL-2] subgroups (P > 0.05). Conclusion: High clinical efficacy of elemene was found in the treatment malignant pleural effusion in patients with lung cancer.