Risk of severe rash in cancer patients treated with EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Aim: We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the incidence and risk factors of severe rash associated with the use of EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Methods: PubMed, EMBASE and oncology conference proceedings were searched for articles published till March 2016. Results: A total of 18,309 patients from 37 randomized controlled trials were available for the meta-analysis. The overall incidence for severe rash was 6.6% (95% CI: 5.2-8.3%) among patients receiving EGFR-TKIs. The use of EGFR-TKIs significantly increased the risk of developing severe rash (risk ratio: 7.70; 95% CI: 5.79-10.23) in cancer patients. On subgroup analysis, the increased risk of severe rash was driven predominantly by drug type (p = 0.002). Conclusion: EGFR-TKIs significantly increase the risk of developing severe rash in cancer patients.