Network meta-analysis of palliative treatments in patients with esophageal cancer

We aimed to compare available palliative treatments in terms of survival and to rank these treatments for esophageal cancer. Web of Science, Medline, Scopus, Cochrane Library and Embase were searched. The risk of bias was judged using Cochrane's tools. Statistical heterogeneity was assessed using the Chi² test and was quantified by I². The results were summarized using the hazard ratio (HR). The rank probability for each treatment was calculated using the p-score. Nineteen RCTs met the eligibility criteria for this study. Treatments formed three networks including networks A, B, and C. The Ultraflex stent (p-score = 0.93), irradiation stent (p-score = 0.89), and thermal ablative therapy (p-score = 0.85) were the first ranking treatments in networks A, B, and C, respectively. Based on the results of this network meta-analysis, it appears that the ultraflex stent, the irradiation stent, and thermal ablative therapy are the better treatments among the networks.