Efficacy of Interleukin-2 Alone and Interleukin-2 Combined with Interferon in Treating Advanced Renal Cancer:A Meta Analysis

Objective To systematically review the efficacy and safety of interleukin-2(IL-2) alone and IL-2 combined with interferon in treating advanced renal cancer using meta analysis.Methods We searched PubMed,Embase,the Cochrane Library,Chinese biomedical literature database,Chinese Scientific Journals full-text database,Chinese Journal full-text database,and major conference proceeding for randomized controlled trials comparing IL-2 alone with interferon plus IL-2 for treatment of patients with advanced renal cancer.We carry out meta analysis according to Cochrane handbook.We analyzed the data using Review Manager 5.0 provided by Cochrane collaboration.Results Six randomized controlled trials involving 842 patients were included.Meta analysis showed that no significant difference existed between IL-2 alone and interferon plus IL-2 in response rate(RR=1.36,95%CI(0.59,3.09)) and mortality rate at one year(RR=0.90,95%CI(0.72,1.12)).Subgroup meta analysis showed that high-dose IL-2 provided superior response rate over routine-dose IL-2 and interferon(RR=2.10,95%CI(1.14,3.87)),while routine-dose IL-2 did not provide higher response rate(RR=0.67,95%CI(0.40,1.11)).Conclusion Current clinical evidence might confirm that combination therapy does not influence response rate or mortality rate compared with IL-2 alone,but high-dose IL-2 provide superior efficacy.