The Role of Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors in Reduction of Mortality from Non-small Cell Lung Cancer: A Meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: Tyrosine kinase inhibitors are widely used in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. However, the exact role of these inhibitors, particularly in the reduction of mortality of non-small cell lung cancer, is unclear so far. As a result, we used RevMan 5 to conduct a meta- analysis of accessible data from randomised clinical trials.

Methods: The studies were categorised based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria after being collected from PubMed using appropriate MeSH terms. The fixed or random effect model was used based on heterogeneity among studies. The overall estimate was estimated as an odd ratio with a confidence interval of 95%. The heterogeneity among studies was calculated by I² and Cochrane Q test. The qualitative analysis of publication bias was done using a funnel plot.

Results: The overall estimate measures [OR 1.02 (0.83, 1.25)] have shown non-significant role of tyrosine kinase inhibitors in reduction of deaths of non-small cell lung cancer patients as compared to non-tyrosine kinase inhibitors group. The subgroup analysis of individual tyrosine kinase inhibitors (erlotinib, gefitinib, afatinib, osimertinib and vandetanib) has also shown similar findings.

Conclusion: Based on available data, there is no significant role played by tyrosine kinase inhibitors in the reduction of deaths of non-small cell lung cancer patients.

Keywords: Tyrosine kinase inhibitors; afatinib; erlotinib; gefitinib; mortality; non-small cell lung cancer; osimertinib; sorafeni; tivantinib; vandetanib.