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

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

Biological therapy leads to lower overall survival compared with placebo, best supportive care (BSC) or no treatment (high certainty).

• Salvage systemic therapy for advanced gastric and oesophago‐gastric junction adenocarcinoma 2020 · Cochrane Headline outcomes only
  HR 0.55 [0.41, 0.73]
  3 studies · 781 participants
  High

Anti‐cancer therapy vs best supportive care

Anti‐cancer therapy showed no clear difference in overall survival compared with best supportive care (moderate certainty).

• Chemotherapy and radiotherapy for advanced pancreatic cancer 2018 · Cochrane Headline outcomes only
  HR 1.08 [0.88, 1.33]
  4 studies · 298 participants
  Moderate

Daily conventionally fractionated radiotherapy vs supportive care

Daily conventionally fractionated radiotherapy probably leads to higher overall survival compared with no radiotherapy (supportive care alone) (moderate certainty).

• External beam radiation dose escalation for high grade glioma 2020 · Cochrane Headline outcomes only
  HR 2.01 [1.58, 2.55]
  4 studies · 397 participants
  Moderate

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

Pexastimogene devacirepvec (Pexa‐Vec) plus best supportive care vs best supportive care

It is very uncertain whether pexastimogene devacirepvec (Pexa‐Vec) plus best supportive care changes overall survival (absolute effect size estimates based on survival… compared with best supportive care alone (very low certainty).

• Gene therapy for people with hepatocellular carcinoma 2024 · Cochrane Headline outcomes only
  HR 1.19 [0.78, 1.82]
  1 study · 129 participants
  Very low

Intervention not reported

The intervention may leads to lower overall survival (low certainty).

• Chemotherapy versus best supportive care for extensive small cell lung cancer 2013 · Cochrane Headline outcomes only
  HR 0.73 [0.55, 0.96]
  2 studies · 542 participants
  Low