3.1 Literature Search and Characteristics
Figure 1 represents a flowchart demonstrated the selection process that met our criteria aforementioned, a total of 1541 potential records were initially identified from databases through the search terms listed above. 531 duplicate studies were excluded. 50 were considered closely correlated to the concept of this study and underwent full text review. 14 studies were removed because they did not mention AMI, CHD, HF or SCD separately as outcomes. 2 were excluded due to insufficient data, 7 studies were excluded because ADT duration was shorter than 6 months, 6 did not specifically report the type of ADT. Additionally, we remove 9 retrospective researches from our study, 2 were excluded for using the same databases as studies that were already included. In the end, 8 studies [11-18] consisted of 316,111 patients were included in our meta-analysis of AMI, 7 studies [12-15, 18-20] involving 532,919 patients were identified in the CHD analysis, data from 6 studies [11, 12, 14-16, 19] with 334,093 patients were available in the HF analysis, 5 studies [11, 13, 21-23] containing 182,403 patients were included in the SCD analysis. No additional articles were eligible for meta-analysis through reference searching.
The basic characteristics of included studies are provided in table 1. All studies were published from 2011 to 2017. Quality evaluation for observational studies indicated no studies being of low quality in all domains of the Newcastle-Ottawa score. The methodological quality of all RCT studies was shown in Figure 2 and no research was excluded due to low quality.
3.2 Association between ADT and AMI
8 studies included were regarding the relationship between ADT and AMI.
Data from 4 studies with 142,012 ADT users and 174,099 non-ADT users were suitable for AA [12, 15, 16, 18] subgroup-analysis; 3 [12, 15, 18] for GnRH agonists plus AA, 4 [12, 13, 15, 18] for GnRH agonists and 5 [12, 13, 15, 17, 18] for orchiectomy. According to our results illustrated in Figure 3, AMI was statistically significant to ADT application (RR = 1.22; 95% CI, 1.05–1.43; P< 0.05) with AA (RR = 1.34; 95% CI, 1.07–1.69; P< 0.05); orchiectomy (RR = 1.71; 95% CI, 1.03–2.83; P<0.05); GnRH agonists (RR = 1.66; 95% CI, 1.01–2.72; P< 0.05); GnRH agonists plus AA (RR = 2.74; 95% CI, 1.67–4.48; P<0.05); respectively. (Figure 4) It is apparent that no statistically significant difference was detected between GnRH agonists plus AA and other ADT method in causing AMI, except for AA (AA: P<0.05; orchiectomy: P=0.19; GnRH agonists: P=0.16). (Figure 5)
3.3 Association between ADT and CHD
There were a total of 532,919 participants from all the 7 included studies investigating the relationship between ADT and CHD of which 157,165 received ADT and 375,754 were control groups. A significantly increased CHD risk was found in the prostate cancer patients treated with ADT. (RR=1.19; 95%CI: 1.03-1.38); (Figure 6). Subgroup analyses by ADT type showed that each type of ADT correlated to CHD, with orchiectomy (RR = 1.13; 95% CI, 1.08–1.18; P< 0.05); GnRH agonists (RR = 1.98; 95% CI, 1.01–3.92; P< 0.05) GnRH agonists plus AA (RR = 2.77; 95% CI 1.65–4.66; P< 0.05); respectively, except for AA (RR = 1.34; 95% CI, 0.59–3.05; P< 0.05); (Figure 7) Compared with orchiectomy, GnRH agonists plus AA could significantly increase the risk of CHD (P<0.05), while similar risk of CHD was seen when compared GnRH agonists monotherapy with GnRH agonists alone with P value=0.45. (Figure 8)
3.4 Association between ADT and SCD HF
Subgroup analyses of the relationship between ADT and SCD were also investigated with total of 182,403 identified events from 5 studies, among them 79,881 were ADT users and 102,522 were from control groups. We identified that SCD was not significantly associated with ADT usage. Subgroup analysis for different types of ADT was not performed as there was only one study [13] reported exact ADT method. (RR=1.13; 95% CI 0.89–1.45; P< 0.05) . (Figure 9) Figure 10 showed the forest plot of HF for patients with or without ADT treatment. Pooled data for HF were available from 6 studies with a total of 334,093 patients (97,925 with ADT exposure and 236,168 without ADT exposure). Based on our results, ADT was associated with a higher incidence of HF compared to control group. (RR=1.15; 95% CI 1.01–1.33; P< 0.05). Subgroup analysis was also not performed for ADT type because of the small number of trials that reported such outcomes.
3.5 Subgroup by duration of ADT
In order to reduce the impact of inconsistent endpoints on our conclusion, whether the duration of ADT application was associated with a significant effect on the risk of AMI events was also explored in our study. The included studies were separated into different groups based on the duration of ADT application, and we defined 5 year as the cut-off value. 3 studies [11, 13, 16] with 53,115 cases and 53,124 controls were in subgroup with ADT application more than 5 years, and others were in subgroup with ADT application less than 5 years. Pool results of our subgroup meta-analysis revealed patients from >5 group have similar risk of AMI compared with≤5. (RR = 1.35, 95%CI, 1.00–1.82, P=0.05, for≤5 year group) (RR = 1.31, 95%CI: 0.66–2.63, P=0.44 for>5 year group). (Figure 11) As for the CHD, HF and SCD group, the sum of included studies for each subgroup is quite limited thus the analysis was not conducted.