The influence of docetaxel schedule on treatment tolerability and efficacy in patients with metastatic breast cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Table 2 Results of meta-analyses of toxicities reported in randomized controlled trials with weekly versus three-weekly docetaxel

Toxicity	No. studies	Ref	Weekly Totals n/N	Three-weekly Totals n/N	Pooled RR	95% CI	p	I² (%)	P_q	τ²
Grade 3/4
Neutropenia	3	[22, 23, 25]	14/179	87/177	0.16	0.10 – 0.27	< 0.001	0	0.67	0
Febrile Neutropenia	3	[22, 23, 25]	5/179	27/177	0.21	0.08 – 0.55	< 0.01	0	0.48	0
Neuropathy	4	[22,23,24,25]	5/227	20/231	0.29	0.11 – 0.78	0.01	0	0.66	0
Infections	3	[22, 24, 25]	10/168	9/172	1.11	0.45 – 2.73	0.82	0	0.62	0
Fatigue/Asthenia	3	[22, 23, 25]	23/179	28/177	0.81	0.48–1.37	0.44	1	0.36	0.003
Fluid retention/edema/effusions	4	[22,23,24,25]	13/227	8/231	1.49	0.44 – 5.02	0.52	31	0.23	0.472
Skin toxicity	3	[22, 24, 25]	19/168	9/172	2.04	0.75 – 5.56	0.16	34	0.22	0.269
Nausea ^a	4	[22,23,24,25]	11/227	15/231	0.74	0.31–1.78	0.50	12	0.33	0.094
Vomiting ^a	4	[22,23,24,25]	12/227	14/231	0.85	0.30–2.37	0.75	32	0.22	0.358
Diarrhea	3	[22, 24, 25]	8/168	17/172	0.50	0.22–1.14	0.10	0	0.67	0
≥ Grade 3 or leading to treatment withdrawal
Epiphora/lacrimation	2	[22, 23]	13/100	3/100	3.62	1.07–12.22	0.04	0	0.47	0
≥ Grade 2 or leading to treatment withdrawal
Onycholysis ^b,c	2	[22, 25]	16/120	4/118	3.90	1.34 – 11.32	0.01	0	0.79	0
Other
Patient withdrawals due to toxicity	2	[22, 25]	43/120	27/118	1.52	1.00 – 2.32	0.05	11	0.29	0.011

n number of patients with an event in the treatment arm, N Total number of patients in the treatment arm, RR risk ratio, CI confidence interval, P_q p-value for heterogeneity, I² measure of statistical heterogeneity, τ² between-study variance
^aEvents from studies where combined outcome was reported cases were counted in both separate analyzed toxicities
^bGrade cut off based on largest group available for analysis
^cRef. [23] not included in analysis since no grade 2 onycholysis reported

ISSN: 1471-2407