Effectiveness and Safety of Rituximab Plus CHOP Chemotherapy for Treating Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Among Chinese People: A Meta-Analysis

Objective To assess the effectiveness and safety of Rituximab plus CHOP chemotherapy for treating non-Hodgkin lymphoma among Chinese people. Methods Using the words “Rituximab”, “non-hodgkin lymphoma”, “systematic review”, “meta-analysis”, “randomized controlled trial” as searching words, we searched CNKI（1991-2010）, CBM（1991-2010）, VIP（1991-2010） and WANGFANG（1991-2010） databases. We also hand searched the relevant references of included studies and review. Randomized controlled trials performed in China on rituximab plus CHOP chemotherapy for treating non-Hodgkin lymphoma were collected. Two reviewers independently screened trails,evaluated the quality of included trials and extracted data. The Cochrane Collaboration’s RevMan 4.2 software was used for statistical analysis. Results Four trails involving 218 patients were included. Results of meta-analyses showed that significant differences were found in the total effective rate （RR=1.22, 95%CI 1.04~1.44） and complete remission rate （RR=1.32, 95%CI 1.01~1.73）, but not in the major chemotherapy-related adverse reactions （leukocytopenia,thrombocytopenia, nausea/vomiting, liver-damage） between rituximab plus CHOP and CHOP alone. Conclusion Based on the present domestic trails, compared with CHOP chemotherapy, treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma with Rituximab plus CHOP chemotherapy can improve the total effective rate and the complete remission rate and meanwhile it doesn’t increase the adverse reactions. However, because of the low quality and small sample of included RCTs, more large-sample, well-designed, exactly-performed, double-blind, randomized and controlled trials are still required.