Perioperative or Postoperative Probiotics Reduce Treatment-Related Complications in Adult Colorectal Cancer Patients Undergoing Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

This systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) aimed to assess the efficacy of perioperative or postoperative probiotics as a therapeutic approach for managing colorectal cancer treatment–related complications in patients undergoing surgery, with or without adjuvant therapy.

MEDLINE, Embase, and Scopus databases were searched.

Ten RCTs with 1276 patients were included. There was a significant decrease in the incidence of diarrhea (odds ratio (OR) 0.42; 95% CI 0.31 to 0.55; p < 0.001), surgical site infection (OR 0.44; 95% CI 0.22 to 0.89; p = 0.023), urinary infection (OR 0.43; 95% CI 0.20 to 0.91; p = 0.028), pulmonary infection (OR 0.30; 95% CI 0.15 to 0.60; p < 0.001), abdominal distention (OR 0.43; 95% CI 0.25 to 0.76; p = 0.004), length of ATB therapy (mean difference (MD) − 1.66 days; 95% CI − 2.13 to − 1.19 days; p < 0.001), and duration of postoperative pyrexia (MD − 0.80 days; 95% CI − 1.38 to − 0.22 days; p = 0.007) in the probiotic group. Nevertheless, length of hospital stay, time to first defecation, and time to first solid diet were not different between groups.

Our findings suggest that perioperative or postoperative probiotics is effective for reducing treatment-related complications in patients with colorectal cancer undergoing surgery, with a lower rate of adverse events.