# Progression-free survival estimation of docetaxel-based second-line treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer: a pooled analysis from 18 randomized control trials

## TL;DR

This study analyzed 18 clinical trials to compare how well docetaxel works compared to other treatments for advanced non-small cell lung cancer, focusing on how long patients stayed without disease progression.

## Contribution

The study provides a pooled analysis of docetaxel's progression-free survival in second-line treatment for advanced NSCLC compared to other therapies.

## Key findings

- Docetaxel-based therapy showed significantly longer progression-free survival (PFS) than antineoplastic agents, kinase inhibitors, and monoclonal antibodies.
- Overall meta-analysis found slightly longer PFS in the standard treatment arm compared to the experimental therapy arm.
- Docetaxel outperformed other therapies in second-line treatment of advanced NSCLC based on PFS.

## Abstract

Lung cancer is the foremost cause of cancer-related death globally, with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounting for 85–90% of cases. Targeted therapy is the most essential therapeutic option for NSCLC, other common treatments include radiation therapy, surgery, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy.

Our study objective was to estimate whether progression-free survival (PFS) is an outcome of NSCLC extracted from 18 randomized control trials (RCTs) with docetaxel as experimental group and antineoplastic agent, kinase inhibitor, and monoclonal antibodies as a control group.

We selected relevant studies published between 2011 and 2022 using Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, and Cochrane Library. Advanced NSCLC, chemotherapy, RCT, docetaxel, and second-line treatment were the terms included in the search. A total of 9738 patients were evaluated from the 18 identified studies. We used the meta package of R Studio to perform the meta-analysis. Graphical funnel plots were used to evaluate publication bias visually.

Patients who underwent docetaxel-based therapy had a considerably longer PFS than those who got antineoplastic agents, kinase inhibitors, or monoclonal antibodies-based treatment. Patients in the standard treatment arm had a slightly longer PFS than those in the experimental therapy arm in the overall meta-analysis.

Docetaxel outperformed monoclonal antibodies, antineoplastic agents, and kinase inhibitors in the second-line therapy of advanced NSCLC since PFS was extensively utilized.