SynthesisInternational journal of environmental research and public health2021
Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Tocilizumab Therapy versus Standard of Care in over 15,000 COVID-19 Pneumonia Patients during the First Eight Months of the Pandemic.
Synthesis in International journal of environmental research and public health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Adverse events associated with monoclonal antibodies used for treatment of COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2025Pooled it
- Efficacy of tocilizumab in the treatment of COVID-19: An umbrella review.Reviews in medical virology · 2022Pooled it
- Cytokine Storms in COVID-19, Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis, and CAR-T Therapy.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Therapeutic Impact of Tocilizumab in the Setting of Severe COVID-19; an Updated and Comprehensive Review on Current Evidence.Archives of academic emergency medicine · 2024Article
- Does tocilizumab have an effect on the clinical outcomes in COVID-19 patients? A meta-analysis of randomized control trials.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2023Article
- Identification of Distinct Clinical Phenotypes of Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients: Results from a Cohort Observational Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
- Antibiotic Usage in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit of an Infectious Diseases Hospital from Nord-Eastern Romania.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2023Article
- Regadenoson for the treatment of COVID-19: A five case clinical series and mouse studies.PloS one · 2023Article
- Should We Interfere with the Interleukin-6 Receptor During COVID-19: What Do We Know So Far?Drugs · 2023Review
- [Should we interfere with the interleukin-6 receptor during COVID-19: What do we know?]Revue des maladies respiratoires · 2023Review
- The Role of Exposomes in the Pathophysiology of Autoimmune Diseases II: Pathogens.Pathophysiology : the official journal of the International Society for Pathophysiology · 2022Review
- Tocilizumab Versus Baricitinib in Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19 Pneumonia and Hypoxemia: A Multicenter Retrospective Cohort Study.Critical care explorations · 2022Article
- Current and emerging immunomodulators for treatment of SARS-CoV2 infection (COVID-19).Expert opinion on pharmacotherapy · 2022Article
- Progress, pitfalls, and path forward of drug repurposing for COVID-19 treatment.Therapeutic advances in respiratory diseaseReview
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
16 authors at 8 institutions in 6 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTocilizumab is an anti-IL-6 therapy widely adopted in the management of the so-called "cytokine storm" related to SARS-CoV-2 virus infection, but its effectiveness, use in relation to concomitant corticosteroid therapy and safety were unproven despite widespread use in numerous studies, mostly open label at the start of the pandemic.
methodsWe performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of case-control studies utilising tocilizumab in COVID-19 on different databases (PubMed/MEDLINE/Scopus) and preprint servers (medRxiv and SSRN) from inception until 20 July 2020 (PROSPERO CRD42020195690). Subgroup analyses and meta-regressions were performed. The impact of tocilizumab and concomitant corticosteroid therapy or tocilizumab alone versus standard of care (SOC) on the death rate, need for mechanical ventilation, ICU admission and bacterial infections were assessed.
resultsThirty-nine studies with 15,531 patients (3657 cases versus 11,874 controls) were identified. Unadjusted estimates (
conclusionDespite the heterogeneity of included studies and large number of preprint articles, our findings from the first eight of the pandemic in over 15,000 COVID-19 cases suggested an incremental efficacy of tocilizumab in severe COVID-19 that were confirmed by subsequent meta-analyses of large randomized trials of tocilizumab. This suggests that analysis of case-control studies and pre-print server data in the early stages of a pandemic appeared robust for supporting incremental benefits and lack of major therapeutic toxicity of tocilizumab for severe COVID-19.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.