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A comparison of regorafenib and fruquintinib for metastatic colorectal cancer: a systematic review and network meta-analysis

  • Original Article – Clinical Oncology
  • Published:
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Abstract

Background

The optimal treatment in the third-line and later-line setting for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) has not been established. As reported, regorafenib and fruquintinib have shown to be superior to placebo in mCRC. However, no direct clinical comparison of regorafenib and fruquintinib has been conducted; we performed a systematic review and network meta-analysis to compare the efficacy and safety of regorafenib and fruquintinib.

Methods

PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library were systematically searched and randomized-controlled trials (RCTs) assessing the effect and safety of regorafenib or fruquintinib versus placebo for patients with mCRC were included. Two investigators independently searched articles, extracted data, and assessed the quality of included studies. After that, we performed pairwise direct meta-analyses (regorafenib vs. placebo and fruquintinib vs. placebo) and indirect comparison (regorafenib vs. fruquintinib) using network meta-analyses methods.

Results

Three RCTs involving 1380 patients were included in the meta-analysis. In the direct meta-analysis, regorafenib and fruquintinib both showed survival benefits when compared with placebo. For the indirect comparison, fruquintinib shows no significant difference in OS compared to regorafenib (HR 0.97; 95% CI 0.64–1.46). Regarding PFS, there was a tendency that fruquintinib was superior to regorafenib (HR 0.65; 95% CI 0.39–1.08); however, there was no statistic difference. For the safety analysis, in indirect comparison, fruquintinib showed significant difference in all-grade toxicity compared to regorafenib (OR 0.73; 95% CI 0.65–0.82), especially in subgroup of proteinuria (OR 0.31; 95% CI 0.11–0.86). For the grade 3–5 toxicity, fruquintinib showed no significant difference when compared with regorafenib (OR 0.92; 95% CI 0.64–1.32).

Conclusion

Based on efficacy and safety, there was a tendency that fruquintinib was superior to regorafenib, as a whole, regorafenib and fruquintinib demonstrated similar clinical benefit for patients with refractory mCRC. It seems that fruquintinib has less toxic in all-grade toxicity when compared with regorafenib.

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Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant numbers 81803569).

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Author notes

  1. Zhu Jing and Zhou Rui are co-authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China

    Zhu Jing & Zhou Rui

  2. Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China

    Zhang binglan

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  1. Zhu Jing
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  2. Zhou Rui
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Correspondence to Zhang binglan.

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Jing, Z., Rui, Z. & binglan, Z. A comparison of regorafenib and fruquintinib for metastatic colorectal cancer: a systematic review and network meta-analysis. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 145, 2313–2323 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-019-02964-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-019-02964-6

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