Comparison of regional arterial chemotherapy and systemic intravenous chemotherapy for advanced pancreatic cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Chemotherapy is the mainstay of treatment for advanced pancreatic cancer (stage III/IV). However, conventional systemic intravenous chemotherapy (SIC) has been unsatisfactory for pancreatic cancer. In recent years, regional arterial infusion chemotherapy (RAIC) has been clinically used as a new chemotherapy regimen for the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer, but its efficacy is controversial. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of RAIC. We searched literatures in databases such as PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and CNKI. After screening, this meta-analysis finally included 9 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with 444 patients (230 RAIC and 214 SIC). We used the Cochrane Risk of Bias 2.0 tool to assess risk of bias for included RCTs. Outcomes were overall survival (OS), overall response rate (ORR), adverse events rate (AER), and pain remission rate. Outcome indicators used relative risk (RR) and its 95% confidence interval (CI) as effect analysis statistics. The results showed that RAIC had some advantages over SIC in terms of ORR, OS, incidence of leukopenia, and pain remission. In conclusion, compared with SIC, RAIC has better clinical efficacy and lower toxicity in the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer.