Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Severe aplastic anaemia (SAA) is a syndrome of bone marrow failure caused by T cell-mediated destruction of haematopoietic stem cells and progenitor cells. Whether patients with SAA should be treated with eltrombopag (EPAG) and immunosuppressive therapy (IST) or IST alone remains debatable. Therefore, we conducted this meta-analysis to compare the efficacy of eltrombopag + IST with that of IST alone in patients with SAA and to assess the difference in the efficacy of eltrombopag in adults and children. METHODS: We performed this meta-analysis by retrieving studies that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria from PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library up to 1 January 2023. We used a random-effects model to calculate odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for primary and secondary outcomes. I(2) statistics were used to evaluate the heterogeneity of the included studies. RESULTS: Six studies involving a total of 699 patients were included. In terms of the primary outcomes, our pooled results indicated that patients treated with EPAG + IST had a higher 6-month overall response rate (OR = 2.25; 95% CI, 1.60-3.16; p < 0.00001), a higher 6-month complete response rate (OR = 2.61; 95% CI, 1.82-3.74; p < 0.00001), and a lower 6-month nonresponse rate (OR = 0.32; 95% CI, 0.19-0.52; p < 0.00001). However, there was no significant difference in the rate of 6-month partial response (OR = 0.94; 95% CI, 0.49-1.81; p = 0.85). CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis indicated that patients treated with additional eltrombopag for IST may have a higher rate of haematological response.