From: Risk of infection in patients with lymphoma receiving rituximab: systematic review and meta-analysis
Summary of evidence | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Outcomes | Risk ratio (95% CI) | P | Num. studies | Num. of participants | Quality of evidence | Heterogeneity (H) | |
Infections | 1.00 (0.87 to 1.14) | 0.943 | 10 | 3,585 | Moderate | I2<20% not further investigated | |
Death from infection | 1.60 (0.68 to 3.75) | 0.279 | 3 | 1,161 | Very Low | I2<20% not further investigated | |
Febrile neutropenia | 1.14 (0.80 to 1.63) | 0.496 | 2 | 702 | Very Low | None | |
Leucopenia | Overall | 1.24 (1.12 to 1.37) | >0.001 | 8 | 2287 | Low | No within group H after subgroup analysis for line of treatment, between group H P = 0.016 |
 | Untreated | 1.20 (1.09 to 1.33) | >0.001 | 7 | 2,091 |  |  |
 | Refractory | 2.00 (1.34 to 2.99) | 0.001 | 1 | 196 |  |  |
Granulocytopenia | 1.07 (1.02 to 1.12) | 0.008 | 8 | 2,381 | Low | H disappears in metaregression according to mean age | |
Overall response | Overall | 1.12 (1.09 to 1.15) | >0.001 | 14 | 4,703 | Low | Persistent strong H in indolent lymphomas and moderate H in aggressive lymphomas after subgroup and metaregression analyses. |
 | Indolent lymphomas | 1.15 (1.11 to 1.19) | >0.001 | 6 | 2,417 | Low |  |
 | Aggressive lymphomas | 1.07 (1.03 to 1.12) | 0.002 | 8 | 2,286 | Moderate |  |