SynthesisBritish journal of clinical pharmacology2022
Efficacy and safety of tocilizumab versus standard care/placebo in patients with COVID-19; a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials.
Synthesis in British journal of clinical pharmacology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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
18 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy of tocilizumab in the treatment of COVID-19: An umbrella review.Reviews in medical virology · 2022Pooled it
- Efficacy and safety of tocilizumab versus standard care/placebo in patients with COVID-19; a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2022Pooled it
- Early hyperferritinemia in polytrauma: a biomarker of systemic inflammation and mortality risk in a multicenter cohort study.Inflammation research : official journal of the European Histamine Research Society ... [et al.] · 2025Observational
- Macrophage activation syndrome in Sepsis: from pathogenesis to clinical management.Inflammation research : official journal of the European Histamine Research Society ... [et al.] · 2024Review
- Histological Assessment of Respiratory Tract and Liver of BALB/c Mice Nebulized with Tocilizumab.Pharmaceutics · 2024Article
- Identification of Clinical Response Predictors of Tocilizumab Treatment in Patients with Severe COVID-19 Based on Single-Center Experience.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
- Clinical Consequences for Individuals Treated with Tocilizumab for Serious COVID-19 Infection.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Advances in attractive therapeutic approach for macrophage activation syndrome in COVID-19.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Review
- Drugs for COVID-19: An Update.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Factors predicting poor outcomes of patients treated with tocilizumab for COVID‑19‑associated pneumonia: A retrospective study.Experimental and therapeutic medicine · 2022Article
- Review
- Lack of Difference in Tocilizumab Efficacy in the Treatment of Severe COVID-19 Caused by Different SARS-CoV-2 Variants.Journal of personalized medicine · 2022Article
- Tocilizumab for reduction of mortality in severe COVID-19 patients: How should we GRADE it?British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2022Article
- Biologics in COVID-19 So Far: Systematic Review.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Comparing efficacy and safety of tocilizumab and methylprednisolone in the treatment of patients with severe COVID-19.International immunopharmacology · 2022Article
- Endothelial dysfunction in acute and long standing COVID-19: A prospective cohort study.Vascular pharmacology · 2022Article
- Immunosuppressant Therapies in COVID-19: Is the TNF Axis an Alternative?Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Circulating miR-320b and miR-483-5p levels are associated with COVID-19 in-hospital mortality.Mechanisms of ageing and development · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimsTocilizumab has emerged as an important therapy in treating patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Our purpose was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of tocilizumab versus standard care/placebo in patients with COVID-19.
methodsWe searched a variety of sources from 1 January 2020 to 5 May 2021. All randomized controlled trials that reported tocilizumab efficacy as a primary agent in COVID-19 patients were considered. RCTs had to include mortality events, incidence of mechanical ventilation and serious adverse events. Two reviewers were independently responsible for data extraction. Assessment of bias and certainty of evidence was carried out using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool and GRADE methodology. RR for mortality events was evaluated using a fixed-effects model.
resultsA total of 6837 patients were included from 10 RCTs, of which nine were peer-reviewed. Pooled risk ratio (RR) for all-cause mortality in patients with tocilizumab administration was RR = 0.88 (95% CI: 0.81-0.95, P = .0009). RR for incidence of mechanical ventilation at 28-30 days was 0.79 (95% CI: 0.71-0.88). Serious adverse events (SAE) with tocilizumab use were associated with lower RR (RR = 0.91, 95% CI: 0.76-1.09) but the certainty of evidence was downgraded to moderate due to serious risk of bias.
conclusionIn COVID-19 patients with moderate to critical COVID-19, use of tocilizumab reduces all-cause mortality and progression to mechanical ventilation. This efficacy was not associated with higher number of serious adverse events.
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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.