Radiotherapy plus EGFR TKIs in non-small cell lung cancer patients with brain metastases: an update meta-analysis

Brain metastasis (BM) is the common complication of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with a poor prognosis and dismal survival rate. This update meta-analysis aimed to derive a more precise estimation of radiotherapy plus epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in NSCLC patients with BM. PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and Cochrane Library were searched to identify any relevant publications. After screening the literature and undertaking quality assessment and data extraction, the meta-analysis was performed using STATA Version 12.0. In total, 15 studies involving 1552 participants were included. The results indicated that radiotherapy plus EGFR TKIs was more effective at improving response rate and disease control rate (DCR) (risk ratio (RR) = 1.48, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.12-1.96, P = 0.005; RR = 1.29, 95% CI: 1.02-1.60, P = 0.035; respectively) than radiotherapy alone or plus chemotherapy. Moreover, radiotherapy plus EGFR TKIs significantly prolonged the time to central nervous system progression (CNS-TTP) (HR = 0.56, 95% CI [0.33, 0.80]; P = 0.000) and median overall survival (OS) (HR = 0.58, 95% CI [0.42, 0.74]; P = 0.000) but significantly increased adverse events (any grade) (RR = 1.25, 95% CI [1.01, 1.57]; P = 0.009), especially rash and dry skin. These results suggested that radiotherapy plus EGFR TKIs produced superior response rate and DCR and markedly prolonged the CNS-TTP and OS of NSCLC patients with BM. However, combined groups had the higher rate of incidence of overall adverse effects, especially rash and dry skin.