https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0907-675X
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Abstract
Objective
Anemia is common and harmful in patients undergoing colorectal cancer (CRC) surgery. Blood transfusion (BT) is used to treat anemia, but results in a poor oncology prognosis. Iron supplementation may be effective in improving anemia and reducing the need for BT, however, the results remain controversial. This meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of iron supplementation in improving hemoglobin concentrations (Hb) and reducing the need for BT.
Methods
Up to February 10, 2021, PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Embase databases were searched for studies evaluating the effects of iron supplementation on CRC surgery patients. Meta-analysis was conduct using the random-effects model.
Results
Seven trials with 879 participants in total were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled findings suggested that iron supplementation effectively increased Hb (MD 0.41; 95% CI: 0.12, 0.69, P = 0.006) and reduced the risk of BT (RR 0.60, 95% CI 0.45, 0.78, P = 0.0002) compared with the control group. In addition, subgroup analyses showed that these benefits were observed with both oral and intravenous iron supplementation.
Conclusion
Iron supplementation is effective in ameliorating anemia and reducing the need for BT in CRC surgery patients.
Acknowledgments
Zhengqiang Wei, Linyu Zhang, Wang Huang and Gang Tang substantial contributions to conception and designed the data; Gang Tang and Linyu Zhang drafted the article critically for important intellectual content; and Zhengqiang Wei approval of the version to be published.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Funding
The authors received no funding support for this literature review, authorship, and publication of this article.