To compare the efficacy and safety of moderate hypofractionated radiotherapy (H-RT) with those of conventional radiotherapy (C-RT) in patients with localized prostate cancer, we conducted extensive literature searches of The Web of Science, Embase, Pubmed and Cochrane Library databases. We identified nine studies with 5969 patients for a meta-analysis. We calculated pooled risk ratios (RRs) and the 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for multiple parameters and performed statistical analysis using RevMan 5.3 software. Our analysis showed that the H-RT group obtained greater improvements in the 5-year biochemical or clinical failure-free survival (RR = 1.04, 95% CI:1.01-1.08; P = 0.01) and 5-year disease-free survival(RR = 1.04, 95% CI: 1.01-1.07, P = 0.02) than the C-RT group. However, the 5-year overall survival rates were comparable in the two groups (RR = 1.02, 95% CI: 0.99-1.04; P = 0.18). Comparison of multiple secondary parameters, including grade 2-4 acute/late gastrointestinal toxicity, grade 2-4 acute/late genitourinary toxicity, biochemical failure, local failure, distant failure and prostate cancer-specific mortality between the H-RT and the C-RT groups showed no statistical differences. This meta-analysis thus indicates that in patients with localized prostate cancer, moderate H-RT exerts a great beneficial effect on the primary parameters than C-RT without enhancing adverse events.
Keywords: hypofractionation; meta-analysis; prostatic neoplasms; radiotherapy.