SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Gastrointestinal and Hepatic Pharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1590782
This article is part of the Research TopicEnhancing outcomes in colorectal cancer: Multidisciplinary approaches to therapy and pain managementView all 9 articles
Efficacy and safety of fruquintinib in the treatment of colorectal cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies in China
Provisionally accepted
Yuan Feng
Yu Shu*- The Eighth Hospital of Wuhan, Wuhan, China
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Objectives: To evaluate fruquintinib's efficacy and safety in the treatment of colorectal cancer.Methods: Studies assessing fruquintinib for colorectal cancer were included. Outcomes were overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS), and adverse reactions. A random-effects model was employed, and sensitivity analysis assessed the stability of the results and potential heterogeneity. Review Manager 5.4 and STATA 15.0 were used for analysis.Results: Eleven studies with 2,367 patients were included. Fruquintinib significantly improved OS (HR: 0.69; 95% CI: 0.58, 0.81; P < 0.00001) and PFS (HR: 0.44; 95% CI: 0.30, 0.64; P < 0.0001). No significant increase in adverse events, serious adverse events, fatigue, or hypertension. However, sensitivity analysis suggested that the risk of hypertension might be unstable, requiring further validation.Fruquintinib improves OS and PFS in colorectal cancer patients without elevating the risk of overall or serious adverse events; however, its potential impact on hypertension risk requires further investigation. Due to limitations such as small sample size, missing data, and regional bias, larger, multicenter, double-blind RCTs are needed to validate these findings.
Keywords: fruquintinib, colorectal cancer, overall survival, Progression-free survival, Safety, Meta-analysis
Received: 10 Mar 2025; Accepted: 13 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Feng and Shu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yu Shu, The Eighth Hospital of Wuhan, Wuhan, China
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