Efficacy and incidence of treatment related adverse events of thrombopoietin receptor agonists in adults with immune thrombocytopenia: a systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled study

Introduction: To conduct a network meta-analysis to assess the efficacy and incidence of treatment related adverse events (TRAEs) of eltrombopag, romiplostim, avatrombopag, recombinant human thrombopoietin (rhTPO) and hetrombopag for adult immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). Methods: Randomized controlled trails (RCTs) of the five therapies from inception to June 1, 2022 were included. The efficacy outcome was the rate of platelet response, defined as the achievement of platelet counts above 50 x 109/L. Pairwise odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were caculated. The surface under the cumulative ranking (SUCRA) was used to rank the included therapies for each outcome. Results: In total, 1,360 participants were analyzed in 14 eligible RCTs. All of the therapies showed a significantly better platelet response than the placebo, and avatrombopag (OR, 7.42; 95% CI, 1.74-31.69) and rhTPO (OR, 3.86; 95%CI, 1.62-9.18) were better than eltrombopag. Regarding TRAEs, no significant differences were found between patients receiving eltrombopag, romiplostim, and avatrombopag. Avatrombopag carried the highest platelet response rate with SUCRA value of 87.5, and carried the least TRAEs risk with SUCRA value of 37.0. Conclusions: These findings indicated that avatrombopag appeared to be the optimal choice as the second-line therapy of adult ITP.