Treatment Response of Immunotherapy Combined with Chemotherapy for Advanced Pancreatic Cancer: A Meta-Analysis

Background: Due to its dismal survival rates and limited treatment choices, pancreatic cancer (PC) continues to be one of the most difficult and aggressive cancers in the world. The potential of immunotherapy (IT) in treating different forms of cancer has led to research on how effective it is in treating advanced pancreatic cancer (APC). Aims: The purpose of this meta-analysis is to evaluate the efficacy of IT in conjunction with chemotherapy for the management of APC. Method: Using electronic databases such as PubMed and Google Scholar, a thorough literature search was carried out to find pertinent papers published up until March 20, 2023. Research on the effectiveness and safety of IT in conjunction with chemotherapy for APC were included. The Review manager 5.4.1 was used to conducted an analysis of the included studies. Results: The odd ratio of the stable disease (SD) and progressive disease (PD) was 1.22 (95% CI: 0.95–1.57), and 0.78 (95% CI: 0.61–1.00), respectively, indicating that there was no significant difference between IT plus chemotherapy and chemotherapy alone. Also, the partial response (PR) of the IT plus chemotherapy did not differ from chemotherapy alone. The odd ratio of partial response was 1.19 (95% CI: 0.80–1.79). Conclusion: It can be concluded that there was no significant difference in the rates of SD, PD, or PR between the treatment of IT combined with chemotherapy and chemotherapy alone in APC patients. This indicates that the outcomes were similar between the two treatment approaches. However, it is important to note that further analysis and consideration of the full study data are necessary to validate this conclusion. Keywords: Advanced pancreas cancer, adenocarcinoma, Immunotherapy, Immune checkpoint inhibitors, Chemotherapy