Interferon alpha as adjuvant postsurgical treatment of melanoma: a meta-analysis
Delphine Pirard1, Michel Heenen, Christian Melot
1Department of Dermatology, Erasme Hospital, Brussels, Belgium. delphinepirard@hotmail.com
Background:
The literature on the benefit of alpha-interferon (IFN-alpha) as adjuvant postsurgical treatment of melanoma reports discordant results.
Objective:
With the published data so far, we performed a meta-analysis in order to evaluate the effect of IFN-alpha on the relapse rate (RR) and the overall survival (OS).
Methods:
Published randomised trials were identified by Medline search. Stage IV melanoma was not considered.
Results:
Nine published studies were included, with a total of 2,880 patients. Both the per protocol and the intention-to-treat analysis show that IFN-alpha significantly decreased the RR (OR = 0.74; 95% CI = 0.64-0.86). Subgroup analyses show that, for all stages, high and low doses decreased the RR (OR = 0.71, 95% CI = 0.54-0.92, and OR = 0.76, 95% CI = 0.63-0.91, respectively). No difference has been evidenced on OS.
Conclusions:
High and low doses of IFN-alpha significantly decrease the RR, but the OS does not seem to be improved.
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