title: Clinical efficacy of including capecitabine in neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Capecitabine has proven effective as a chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer. Though several Phase II/III studies of capecitabine as neoadjuvant chemotherapy have been conducted, the results still remain inconsistent. Therefore, we performed a meta-analysis to obtain more precise understanding of the role of capecitabine in neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  The electronic database PubMed and online abstracts from ASCO and SABCS were searched to identify randomized clinical trials comparing neoadjuvant chemotherapy with or without capecitabine in early/operable breast cancer patients without distant metastasis. Risk ratios were used to estimate the association between capecitabine in neoadjuvant chemotherapy and various efficacy outcomes. Fixed- or random-effect models were adopted to pool data in RevMan 5.1.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Five studies were included in the meta-analysis. Neoadjuvant use of capecitabine with anthracycline and/or taxane based therapy was not associated with significant improvement in clinical outcomes including: pathologic complete response in breast (pCR; RR = 1.10, 95% CI 0.87-1.40, p = 0.43), pCR in breast tumor and nodes (tnpCR RR = 0.99, 95% CI 0.83-1.18, p = 0.90), overall response rate (ORR; RR = 1.00, 95% CI 0.94-1.07, p = 0.93), or breast-conserving surgery (BCS; RR = 0.98, 95% CI 0.93-1.04, p = 0.49).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Neoadjuvant treatment of breast cancer involving capecitabine did not significantly improve pCR, tnpCR, BCS or ORR. Thus adding capecitabine to neoadjuvant chemotherapy regimes is unlikely to improve outcomes in breast cancer patients without distant metastasis. Further research is required to establish the condition that capecitabine may be useful in breast cancer neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Breast Surgery, The Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China.
authors.forename: Qiuyun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Huawei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Jianlun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D018943:Anthracyclines / Q000008:administration & dosage; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D000069287:Capecitabine; D003841:Deoxycytidine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000031:analogs & derivatives*; D005260:Female; D005472:Fluorouracil / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000031:analogs & derivatives*; D006801:Humans; D015233:Models, Statistical; D020360:Neoadjuvant Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D018570:Risk Assessment; D043823:Taxoids / Q000008:administration & dosage; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D018943:Anthracyclines; D043823:Taxoids; D003841:Deoxycytidine; D000069287:Capecitabine; D005472:Fluorouracil