Table 2.
Comparisons of grade 3–4 toxicities in the doublet agents group, with single-agent group, in this meta-analysis
| Toxicity | Trials | Doublets | Single agent | Heterogeneity
|
RR (95% CI) | P-value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P-value | I2 (%) | ||||||
| Anorexia | 5 | 27/1,500 | 16/1,487 | 0.239 | 27.4 | 1.64 (0.84–3.21) | 0.146 |
| Diarrhea | 8 | 155/2,091 | 159/2,079 | 0.006 | 64.5 | 0.98 (0.62–1.55) | 0.934 |
| Nausea | 7 | 75/1,927 | 32/1,919 | 0.482 | 0.0 | 2.34 (1.52–3.59) | 0.000 |
| Stomatitis or pharyngitis | 8 | 115/2,140 | 35/2,130 | 0.114 | 39.7 | 3.32 (2.22–4.95) | 0.000 |
| Leukopenia | 4 | 597/1,399 | 72/1,395 | 0.000 | 89.5 | 7.82 (2.45–24.97) | 0.001 |
| Anemia | 8 | 115/1,956 | 62/1,932 | 0.608 | 0.0 | 1.85 (1.34–2.56) | 0.000 |
| Neutropenia | 8 | 1,066/1,977 | 288/1,973 | 0.000 | 97.0 | 4.77 (1.67–13.60) | 0.003 |
| Thrombocytopenia | 5 | 90/1,401 | 33/1,384 | 0.675 | 0.0 | 2.75 (1.82–4.14) | 0.000 |
| Febrile leukopenia | 5 | 124/1,604 | 70/1,638 | 0.000 | 87.1 | 3.36 (1.04–10.84) | 0.043 |
| Toxic death | 5 | 15/1,325 | 6/1,332 | 0.821 | 0.0 | 2.4 (0.89–6.44) | 0.051 |
| Hand-foot syndrome | 6 | 351/1,735 | 293/1,730 | 0.000 | 84.2 | 1.29 (0.74–2.22) | 0.366 |
Notes: The RRs and 95% CIs of anemia, anorexia, nausea, thrombocytopenia, and toxic death were calculated with fixed effect models. And the RRs and 95% CIs of the other adverse effects were calculated with random effect models.
Abbreviations: RR, risk ratio; CI, confidence interval.