title: Dental Implants in Patients Receiving Chemotherapy: A Meta-Analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To test the null hypothesis of no difference in the implant failure rates, postoperative infection, and marginal bone loss for patients being rehabilitated by dental implants and being versus not being submitted to chemotherapy, against the alternative hypothesis of a difference.
  
  
  METHODS
  An electronic search without time or language restrictions was undertaken in May 2014 in PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, Cochrane Oral Health Group Trials Register plus hand-searching. Eligibility criteria included clinical human studies, either randomized or not.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Nine publications were included. The results suggested that the insertion of dental implants in patients submitted or not submitted to chemotherapy did not affect the implant failure rates (risk ratio 1.02, 95% confidence interval 0.56-1.85; P = 0.95). Because of lack of enough information, meta-analyses for the outcomes "postoperative infection" and "marginal bone loss" were not performed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results cannot suggest that the insertion of dental implants in patients submitted to chemotherapy may or may not affect the implant failure rates, because of a limited number of published studies, most of them characterized by a low level of specificity and dealing with a limited number of cases without a control group. The reliability and validity of the data collected and the potential for biases and confounding factors are some of the shortcomings of the present study.
authors.affiliation: *PhD Student, Department of Prosthodontics, Faculty of Odontology, Malmö University, Malmö, Sweden. †Retired Professor and Former Head of the Department of Biomaterials, Göteborg University, Göteborg, Sweden; Guest Professor of the Department of Prosthodontics, Faculty of Odontology, Malmö University, Malmö, Sweden. ‡Professor and Head of the Department of Prosthodontics, Faculty of Odontology, Malmö University, Malmö, Sweden.
authors.forename: Bruno Ramos
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Chrcanovic
authors.forename: Tomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Albrektsson
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wennerberg
mesh_terms: D003757:Dental Implantation / Q000009:adverse effects; D015921:Dental Implants; D019232:Dental Restoration Failure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004358:Drug Therapy; D064420:Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D015921:Dental Implants