Effect of Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy with Capecitabine versus Fluorouracil for Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer: A Meta-Analysis
Table 2
Toxic (grade 3 or worse) effects in trials comparing capecitabine with 5-Fu.
Toxicity
Number of trials
Number of cases
OR (95% CI)
Test of homogeneity
P value
Cape
5-Fu
(%)
P value
Lowered hemoglobin
7
6/696
5/748
1.13 (0.36, 3.54)
24.6
0.27
0.83
Lowered leucocytes
7
7/696
31/748
0.24 (0.11, 0.54)
28.9
0.23
0.0005
Lowered platelets
6
0/658
4/699
0.30 (0.05, 1.88)
0
0.99
0.2
Nausea
6
10/906
4/905
2.30 (0.79, 6.70)
0
0.51
0.13
Vomiting
6
7/1038
2/1049
3.04 (0.72, 12.75)
0
0.66
0.13
Diarrhea
9
87/1204
95/1252
0.92 (0.67, 1.24)
66.7
0.002
0.57
Mucositis
4
1/419
4/449
0.33 (0.05, 2.10)
0
0.64
0.24
Hand-foot syndrome
9
17/1204
3/1252
4.43 (1.59, 12.33)
0
0.48
0.004
Radiation dermatitis
7
26/972
32/1010
0.85 (0.51, 1.44)
49.3
0.08
0.55
RR, risk ratio; cape, capecitabine; CI, confidence interval. Fixed-effect model. Random-effects model. National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events, version 4.0.
