Clinical therapeutic effects of combined methotrexate and other chemotherapeutic agents in treating children and young patients with osteosarcoma A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Osteosarcoma is one of the most common primary bone tumour in children and young patients, and the third most common among adults. Its main treatment option is currently based on neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemoradiotherapy along with the lesion's surgical resection. The current study's primary aim is to examine the clinical therapeutic impacts of combined methotrexate, along with other chemotherapeutic agents to treat children and young adults suffering from osteosarcoma. Methods: We will perform a comprehensive literature search in English database (PubMed, EMBASE, Cochran Library CINAHL, and PsycINFO) and Chinese database (Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, VIP information database, Chinese Biomedical Database, and WanFang Database) with no language restriction from their inception to the search date. Additionally, two independent authors will screen the works of literature obtained from these databases, obtain information, and examine the risks of data included for the studies' bias. Furthermore, we intend to employ the Q statistics as well as I-2 statistics to calculate heterogeneity among each study's analysis. Accordingly, we will utilize the funnel plots and Egger test to assess the possibility of publication bias where relevant. Results: The current study aims to provide significant information regarding the clinical therapeutic impacts of combines methotrexate along with other chemotherapeutic agents to treat children and young adults suffering from osteosarcoma. Conclusions: The present study will generate compelling evidence of combined methotrexate as well as other chemotherapeutic agents for osteosarcoma among children and young adults. Also, it will provide clinical practice suggestions. Ethics and dissemination: The study is founded upon published data. Therefore, there is no requirement for ethics approval.

Automated summary

The study aims to examine the clinical therapeutic impacts of combined methotrexate along with other chemotherapeutic agents for treating osteosarcoma in children and young adults. The research will analyze literature from English and Chinese databases, assess bias risks, and evaluate heterogeneity among studies. The results are expected to provide significant evidence and clinical recommendations for the treatment of osteosarcoma.