Journal
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF CANCER
Volume 82, Issue -, Pages 171-183Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.ejca.2017.06.006
Keywords
Individual patient data meta-analysis; Randomised controlled trials; Melanoma; Adjuvant interferon
Categories
Funding
- University of Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit
- UK Department of Health, through National Coordinating Centre for Research Capacity Development - Natalie Ives
- Fonds Cancer, FOCA (BE)
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Background: Many randomised trials assessing interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) as adjuvant therapy for high-risk malignant melanoma have been undertaken. To better assess the role of IFN-alpha, an individual patient data (IPD) meta-analysis of these trials was undertaken. Methods: IPD was sought from all randomised trials of adjuvant IFN-alpha versus no IFN-alpha for high-risk melanoma. Primary outcomes were event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS). Standard methods for quantitative IPD meta-analysis were used. Subgroup analyses by dose, duration of treatment and various patient and disease-specific parameters were performed. Findings: Fifteen trials were included in the analysis (eleven with IPD). EFS was significantly improved with IFN-alpha (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.86, CI 0.81-0.91; P < 0.00001), as was OS (HR = 0.90, CI 0.85-0.97; P = 0.003). The absolute differences in EFS at 5 and 10 years were 3.5% and 2.7%, and for OS were 3.0% and 2.8% respectively in favour of IFN-alpha. There was no evidence that the benefit of IFN-a differed depending on dose or duration of treatment, or by age, gender, site of primary tumour, disease stage, Breslow thickness, or presence of clinical nodes. Only for ulceration was there evidence of an interaction (test for heterogeneity: P = 0.04 for EFS; P = 0.002 for OS); only patients with ulcerated tumours appeared to obtain benefit from IFN-alpha. Conclusion: This meta-analysis provides clear evidence that adjuvant IFN-alpha significantly reduces the risk of relapse and improves survival and shows no benefit for higher doses compared to lower doses. The increased benefit in patients with ulcerated tumours, and lack of benefit in patients without ulceration, needs further investigation. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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