Clinical efficacy of preoperative chemotherapy with or without ifosfamide in patients with osteosarcoma of the extremity: meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Ifosfamide has been used in neoadjuvant chemotherapy since the mid-1980s. Although several studies have been conducted, the results remain controversial. Randomized controlled trials have an improved balance of confounding factors and reliable results. Thus, we performed a meta-analysis based on randomized controlled trials to gather more evidence of the effect of ifosfamide on neoadjuvant chemotherapy for patients with osteosarcoma of the extremity. An electronic search was conducted via the Internet retrieval system to identify eligible trials until September 2014. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95 % confidence interval (CI) were calculated to compare the results of ifosfamide and ifosfamide-free therapies. Four trials with a total of 1,378 patients were eligible for our meta-analysis. Overall, compared with neoadjuvant chemotherapy without ifosfamide, the use of ifosfamide had no advantage in terms of histological response to chemotherapy (cHR; OR 1.36; 95 % CI 0.90–2.03, P = 0.140), 5-year event-free survival (EFS; OR 1.16; 95 % CI 0.789–1.75, P = 0.464), and 5-year overall survival (OS; OR 1.06; 95 % CI 0.70–1.59, P = 0.794). However, improvement was noted in the rate of limb salvage (OR 4.06; 95 % CI 2.04–8.10, P < 0.001). Neoadjuvant chemotherapy with ifosfamide for patients with extremity osteosarcoma might not increase the cHR and exhibited no significant effect on either EFS or OS. However, ifosfamide therapy could significantly increase the rate of limb salvage for osteosarcoma of the extremity, which suggests that the preoperative use of ifosfamide could increase the success rate of limb salvage operation.