Cutaneous eruption as a prognosis indicator for cancer patients treated with EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Abstract

e23063 Background: Clinical symptom is often a direct method to evaluate the treatment effects. With the emergence of EGFR-targeted drugs on market, it is unclear to apply cutaneous toxicity in evaluating treatment effects and outcomes in cancer patients. This study aimed to determine whether adverse skin event as a survival indicator for patients treated with EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Methods: PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, trial register and Cochrane Library were searched on November 11, 2018 to identify studies reporting survivals outcomes. The following search/exploded terms were used: “ EGFR-TKIs: gefitinib/erlotinib/afatinib/osimertinib ”, “ cutaneous toxicity”, “ survival”. Two investigators performed study selection independently and assessed risk of bias with ROBINS-I method. Data were pooled with random effects models and further subgroup by cancer types. Funnel plot, Egger test and Begg test were performed for detection of publication bias. Sensitivity analysis was performed by excluding potential outliers. Results: There were 24 studies identified with 4696 patients included. Skin adverse event was found to be significantly associated overall survival rate (HR, 0.48; 95% CI, 0.43-0.53; P < 0.00001; I2 = 83%) and progression free survival rate (HR, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.41-0.85; P= 0.004; I2 = 88%). Subgroup analysis suggested among non-small cell lung cancer patients, skin adverse event was significantly associated with overall survival (HR, 0.39; 95% CI, 0.25-0.60; P < .0001; I2 = 86%) but not progression free survival (HR, 0.65; 95% CI, 0.29-1.45; P= 0.29; I2 = 95%). Among other cancer types patients, skin adverse event was significantly associated with overall survival (HR, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.41-0.84; P= 0.004; I2 = 70%) and progression free survival (HR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.41-0.91; P= 0.02; I2 = 80%). Begg test and Egger test suggested no evidence of publication bias. Sensitivity analysis also showed similar results. Conclusions: Skin eruption had 52% lower risk of death and 41% lower risk of progression in cancer patients treated with EGFR-TKIs. This association should be further incorporated with cancer survivorship care planning.