Capecitabine monotherapy in advanced breast cancer resistant to anthracycline and taxane: A meta-analysis

Background: Capecitabine monotherapy is usually used for advanced breast cancer (ABC) resistant to anthracycline and taxane, but there are still many other options too. Our meta-analysis assessed whether capecitabine monotherapy was superior or noninferior to the other regimens in ABC pretreated with anthracycline and taxane. Materials and Methods: PubMed databases and abstracts from the proceedings of American Society of Clinical Oncology and San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium were searched for randomized controlled trials that compared capecitabine monotherapy with other regimens for ABC progression after anthracycline- and taxane-treatment. Hazard ratios (HRs) were used for progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Risk ratios (RRs) were used for overall response rate (ORR) and Grade 3u4 drug-related adverse events. All statistical analyses were conducted with RevMan 5.3 software, and statistical significance was defined as P < 0.05. Results: In total, 4671 patients from eight trials were included. Target therapy as treatment group was involved in four trials, and the other four trials were merely chemotherapy in treatment group. Our study indicated that capecitabine monotherapy was not superior but also noninferior to the other regimens in ORR (RR = 1.3295% confidence interval [CI] 0.98u1.77, P = 0.07), PFS (HR = 1.03, 95% CI 0.85u1.25, P = 0.76), and OS (HR = 0.96, 95% CI 0.88u1.05, P = 0.40). Subgroup analysis showed that both the other chemotherapy regimens and target drugs failed to improve efficacy compared with capecitabine monotherapy, and target drugs could shorten PFS (HR = 1.22, 95% CI 1.06u1.39, P = 0.004). Incidences of Grade 3u4 hematology toxicity in other regimens group significantly increased compared with capecitabine monotherapy. Conclusions: Our meta-analysis demonstrated that capecitabine monotherapy could be the first choice for ABC pretreated with anthracycline and taxane due to its efficacy and low toxicity.