RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Our goal was to assess the effectiveness of paclitaxel therapy in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) by means of a meta-analysis of published clinical trials. MATERIAL AND METHOD: We carried out a search of controlled and randomized clinical trials which evaluated treatment with paclitaxel in patients with NSCLC from January 1996 to April 2001, regardless of any other associated therapy and without restrictions in the publication language. We also performed a sensitivity analysis and an analysis of sample heterogeneity. RESULTS: Six randomized and controlled studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Results from the analysis of effectiveness favoured significantly treatment with paclitaxel (OR 95% total responders: 1.42 [1.16-1.74]; p = 0.07). These results remained unchanged with the sensitivity analysis. Analysis of survival after 1 year of treatment was not significant (OR 95% 0.96 [0.79-1.17]; p = 0.2) CONCLUSIONS: Paclitaxel in patients with NSCLC offers a therapeutic advantage over other chemotherapy regimes with an overall OR of 1.42. However, this therapy does not appear to offer a significant survival advantage after 1 year.