Abstract
Incidence and risk of severe infections associated with anti-epidermal growth factor receptor monoclonal antibodies in cancer patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Highlights
Anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs) have been widely used in a variety of malignancies
Our results demonstrated that the use of cetuximab significantly increased the risk of severe infections (RR 1.52, 95%confidence intervals (CIs): 1.33 to 1.75, P
Our results showed that the use of anti-EGFR MoAbs significantly increased the risk of severe sepsis (RR 4.30, 95%CI: 1.80 to 10.27, P = 0.001), while a non-significantly increased risk of febrile neutropenia (RR 1.09, 95%CI: 0.86 to 1.38, P = 0.68) and pneumonia (RR 1.11, 95%CI: 0.72 to 1.70, P = 0.64) was observed
Summary
Anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs) have been widely used in a variety of malignancies. The contribution of anti-EGFR MoAbs to infections is still unknown We performed this meta-analysis to determine the overall incidence and risk of severe infections in cancer patients treated with these drugs. The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signal pathway plays an essential role in tumor proliferation, differentiation, anti-apoptosis and metastasis [1,2,3] For this reason, EGFR and the process of its receptor binding are regarded as attractive therapeutic targets in the treatment of cancers. To the best of our knowledge, the incidence and risk of severe infections with these drugs have not been systematically defined We performed this up-to-date meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials to determine whether the addition of anti-EGFRMoAbs to therapies increases the risk of severe and fatal infections in cancer patients
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