Key clinical point : Taxanes plus basic chemotherapy vs basic chemotherapy alone improves oncologic outcomes in treatment-naive patients with advanced gastric cancer.
Major finding: Basic chemotherapy with vs without taxanes significantly improved progression-free survival (hazard ratio [HR] 0.73; P = .001), overall survival (HR 0.80; P = .003), objective response rate (risk ratio [RR] 1.34; P = .0001), and disease control rate (RR 1.20; P = .001). Patients who received taxanes had a significantly higher risk for neutropenia (RR 3.54; P = .0003), leucopenia (RR 24.99; P = .03), and diarrhea (RR 4.41; P < .00001).
Study details: A meta-analysis of six randomized controlled trials including 2263 patients with advanced gastric cancer who received first-line chemotherapy.
Disclosures: This study was supported by Beijing Natural Science Foundation of China. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
Source: Ma X et al. Efficacy and safety of combination chemotherapy regimens containing taxanes for first-line treatment in advanced gastric cancer. Clin Exp Med. 2022 (Apr 16). Doi: 10.1007/s10238-022-00824-1