A Meta-analysis of carbon ion radiotherapy for prostate cancer

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of the carbon ion radiotherapy for prostate cancer by Meta-analysis. Methods: We searched the Cochrane library, PubMed, EMBASE, China Journal Full-text Database, Chinese Biomedical Database, and Wanfang Database from their inception to December 2015, in order to collect clinical trial data of carbon ion radiotherapy for prostate cancer. References included within these studies were also retrieved. Meta-analysis was performed using MetaAnalyst Beta 3.13 and STATA 12.0 software. Results: Six studies (eight clinical trials) were included. The results of Meta-analysis show that, the overall survival rates of 3, 4, 5 and 8 years were 95.7%, 90.9%, 91.8% and 83.9%, respectively. The cause specific survival rate of 4 and 5 years were 97.1% and 97.6%. The bNED rate of 3, 4, 5 and 8 years were 88%, 86.3% and 79.1%, respectively. The local control rates of 3, 4 and 5 years were 98.1%, 97.1% and 98.4%, respectively. The rate of total death, prostate cancer death and intercurrent death were 7%, 2.4% and 7%, respectively. Different T-stage may affect the five-year of overall survival rate, bNED rate and cause specific survival rate. Conclusions: The current evidence shows that carbon ion radiotherapy in general is a feasible treatment for prostate cancer, whether carbon ion is better than other radiotherapy, prospective, randomized, controlled clinical trial to get more evidence is required for carbon ion radiotherapy versus standard treatment for prostate cancer patients. (authors)