Efficacy and safety of gemcitabine plus capecitabine in the treatment of advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND Gemcitabine combined the oral fluoropyrimidine capecitabine (GemCap) is an active antitumor therapy in the treatment of advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer, and has been shown potential synergistic activity in previous clinical trials. In this study, we sought to systematically review and synthesize the efficacy and safety of GemCap in the treatment of advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer. METHODS A systematic review was performed through PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, and Web of Science databases up to Jul 10, 2019 to identify clinical trials that included advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer patients treated with GemCap. Data of overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), 1-year survival rate, objective response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR) and adverse events were extracted and meta-analyzed. RESULTS Fifteen studies were identified for systematic review, of which 13 were included in the metaanalysis. In comparison with Gem monotherapy, the pooled hazard ratios (HR) of GemCap treatment for OS and PFS were 0.85 (95% CI: 0.75-0.95, P=0.007) and 0.80 (95% CI: 0.72-1.04, P=0.0002). The pooled 1-year survival rate, ORR and DCR of GemCap were, respectively, 33.1% (95% CI: 28.7-37.5), 22.9% (95% CI: 17.6-28.3) and 65.7% (95% CI: 56.7-74.8). GemCap combination therapy showed significantly higher ORR (OR: 1.98, 95% CI: 1.34-2.67, P=0.0003) and DCR (OR: 1.41, 95% CI: 1.05- 1.88, P=0.02) compared to Gem monotherapy. The most common grade ≥3 hematological toxicities in patients treated with GemCap combination therapy were neutropenia (19.7%), leucocytopenia (7.9%) and anemia (4.9%). The most common grade ≥3 non-hematological toxicities were hand-foot syndrome (6.3%), fatigue (5.7%) and nausea (4.8%). CONCLUSIONS GemCap combination therapy had an encouraging activity and might be a better treatment strategy compared with Gem alone in the first-line treatment for patients with advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer.