Additional adjuvant capecitabine in early breast cancer patients: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Aims: To assess the efficacy and safety of adjuvant capecitabine in early breast cancer patients. Methods: A literature search of databases was conducted to identify randomized controlled trials reporting the efficacy and toxicity of capecitabine as adjuvant therapy in early breast cancer patients. Results: Six studies were eligible and included a total of 6941 patients. Disease-free survival (hazard ratio = 0.79; 95% CI = 0.71-0.88; p < 0.0001) was significantly improved with additional capecitabine, whereas improvement in overall survival (OS) was not significant. The more pronounced benefits in both disease-free survival and OS were observed among triple-negative breast cancer patients. Conclusion: Additional capecitabine in the adjuvant setting conferred substantial disease-free survival benefit and a tendency toward improved OS. Triple-negative breast cancer patients can benefit from capecitabine irrespective of the administration sequence. Capecitabine may be considered a preferred additional treatment for early-stage triple-negative breast cancer patients, and sequential capecitabine can serve as an alternative choice for patients with poor tolerance. Lay abstract The authors' meta-analysis focused on the adjuvant role of capecitabine in early-stage breast cancer patients. The authors combined data from different studies to show that disease-free survival was significantly improved with additional capecitabine as adjuvant chemotherapy. The more pronounced survival benefits were observed among triple-negative breast cancer patients irrespective of the administration sequence (concurrent/sequential). Capecitabine may be considered a preferred additional treatment for early-stage triple-negative breast cancer patients, and sequential capecitabine can serve as an alternative choice for patients with poor tolerance.