Neoadjuvant and/or adjuvant chemotherapy for gastric cancer patients with microsatellite instability or deficient mismatch repair: a systematic review and meta-analysis study protocol

This study protocol is reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Protocols-P guideline. PubMed, Embase, Cochrane (CENTRAL), and the Web of Science databases will be searched, supplemented by a secondary screening of relevant records. Both randomised controlled trials and non-randomised studies will be included in this study. The primary and secondary outcomes under scrutiny will be overall survival, disease-free survival and progression-free survival. Two reviewers will independently screen studies, extract data and assess the risk of bias. We will analyse different treatment settings (eg, neoadjuvant or adjuvant or combined as perioperative chemotherapies) separately and conduct sensitivity analyses. Ethics and dissemination No ethics approval is required for this systematic review and meta-analysis, as no individual patient data will be collected. The findings of our study will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Prospero registration number CRD42023494276.
Source: BMJ Open - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Open access, Surgery Source Type: research