What do systematic reviews say?

Chemotherapy vs placebo, best supportive care (BSC) or no treatment

Chemotherapy probably leads to lower overall survival compared with placebo, best supportive care (BSC) or no treatment (moderate certainty).

• Salvage systemic therapy for advanced gastric and oesophago‐gastric junction adenocarcinoma 2020 · Cochrane Headline outcomes only
  HR 0.66 [0.52, 0.83]
  2 studies · 547 participants
  Moderate

Chemotherapy vs best supportive care

Chemotherapy probably leads to lower overall survival compared with best supportive care (moderate certainty).

• Chemotherapy for advanced gastric cancer 2017 · Cochrane Headline outcomes only
  HR 0.37 [0.24, 0.55]
  3 studies · 184 participants
  Moderate

Chemotherapy vs best supportive care

Chemotherapy probably leads to lower overall survival compared with best supportive care (moderate certainty).

• Second‐line systemic therapy for metastatic colorectal cancer 2017 · Cochrane Headline outcomes only
  HR 0.58 [0.43, 0.8]
  1 study · 279 participants
  Moderate

Summary of findings table (subcomparison 1): chemotherapy or targeted therapy plus best supportive care (BSC) vs BSC

Summary of findings table (subcomparison 1): chemotherapy or… leads to lower overall survival compared with BSC (high certainty).

• Palliative chemotherapy and targeted therapies for esophageal and gastroesophageal junction cancer 2017 · Cochrane Headline outcomes only
  HR 0.81 [0.71, 0.92]
  5 studies · 750 participants
  High

First‐line chemotherapy vs BSC

• Chemotherapy versus best supportive care for extensive small cell lung cancer 2013 · Cochrane Headline outcomes only
  no estimate extracted
  2 studies · 65 participants
  Very low