Taxanes during pregnancy in cervical cancer: A systematic review and pooled analysis

•Taxanes, when combined with platinum derivatives, may be safely administered in cervical cancer patients during the second and the third trimester of pregnancy, if necessary.•Earlier use of taxanes than this gestational stage remains doubtful as there is increased chance of abortion or congenital anomalies.•Tumor response in pregnant women has been satisfactory with the combination of taxanes and platinum derivatives. Cervical cancer is one of the most common malignancies diagnosed during pregnancy. Taxanes administration has been established as theurapetic regimen in non pregrant women. This systemic review and meta-analysis aims to synthesize all available data from cervical cancer series in pregnant women and evaluate the efficacy and safety of taxanes during pregnancy. Eligible articles were identified by a search of ClinicalTrial.gov and MEDLINE databases for the period 01/01/2000 up to 31/11/2017; The algorithm consisted of a predefined combination of the words “cervical”, “cancer”, “taxanes” and “pregnancy”. PRISMA guidelines were applied in this study. The literature search and data extraction from all studies that examined the efficacy and safety of taxanes in pregnancy, were done by two independent investigators. Quantitative synthesis of the published articles was performed. Overall eight articles were retrieved. In all cases (14 pregnancies, 14 newborns) the use of taxanes in combination with platinum derivatives resulted in the birth of alive neonates, with not any miscarriage. The taxane derivative used in all cases was paclitaxel, combined with Cisplatin (13 pregnancies) and Carboplatin (one pregnancy). Complete and partial response was achieved in 7.2% and 92.9% of cervical cancer patients. In the majority of cases chemotherapy was well tolerated. The median progression-free survival was 48.5 months. Taxanes administration during the 2nd and 3rd trimester of pregnancy is a safe choice.