Abstract
Background Chemotherapy often causes chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), but effective prevention measures are still lacking. Whether vitamin E can prevent peripheral neurotoxicity caused by chemotherapy is inconclusive. Therefore, we collected related randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and conducted a meta-analysis to examine whether vitamin E could prevent CIPN. Methods We searched PubMed, EMBASE and the Cochrane databases in November 2019 for eligible trials. Two reviewers conducted the analysis independently when studies were homogeneous enough. Results Eight RCTs, involving 555 patients, were identified. Upon pooling these RCTs, patients who received vitamin E supplementation of 600 mg/day had a significantly lower incidence of peripheral neuropathy (RR 0.31; 95% CI 0.14 to 0.65; P = 0.002) induced by chemotherapy compared with the placebo group. Vitamin E played a key role in decreasing the incidence of peripheral neuropathy in the cisplatin chemotherapy group (RR 0.28; 95% CI 0.14 to 0.54; P = 0.0001). With regard to improvements in sural amplitude, vitamin E supplementation significantly decreased patients’ sural amplitude after three rounds of chemotherapy (RR -2.66; 95% CI -5.09 to -0.24; P =0.03) in contrast with that of placebo supplementation, while no significant difference was observed when patients were treated with vitamin E after six rounds of chemotherapy. In addition, the vitamin E group had better improvement in the neurotoxicity score (RR -2.65; 95% CI -4.01to -1.29; P = 0.0001) and a lower incidence of reflexes and distal paraesthesias (RR 0.50; 95% CI 0.29 to 0.87; P = 0.01) compared to the control group. Conclusion Available data included in this meta-analysis showed that vitamin E supplementation can confer modest improvement in the prevention of CIPN. However, large-scale, well-designed RCTs are needed to confirm the exact role of vitamin E supplementation in the prevention of CIPN.
A meta-analysis and meta-regression of the effects of vitamin E supplementation on serum enrichment, udder health, milk yield, and reproductive performance of transition cows
