Cinacalcet for Treatment of Chronic Kidney Disease-Mineral and Bone Disorder: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Abstract

Background: Cinacalcet could decrease serum calcium, phosphate, and parathyroid hormone (PTH) in previous meta-analyses. However, the effect of cinacalcet on the new biomarkers such as fibroblast growth factor-23 (FGF-23), bone markers, and vascular calcification are still unestablished. We conducted a meta-analysis to examine the effects of cinacalcet on all laboratory and clinical spectrums of chronic kidney disease-mineral bone disorders (CKD-MBD).

Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted in MEDLINE, Scopus, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and Clinical Trials.gov to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing the effect of cinacalcet relative to standard treatment on CKD-MBD surrogate markers and clinical outcomes. Random-effect models were used to compute the weighted mean difference for continuous variables and the risk ratio for binary variables.

Results: Twenty-four RCTs (10,031 dialysis patients) were identified. Besides lowering effects on calcium, phosphate, and PTH, cinacalcet significantly reduced bone resorptive marker (tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase 5b) but unaltered bone formation markers (bone alkaline phosphatase and osteocalcin). Cinacalcet also resulted in significant higher risk of hypocalcemia, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Cinacalcet significantly lowered serum FGF-23 level, although unaltered all-cause mortalities.

Conclusions: Use of cinacalcet in dialysis patients improves several CKD-MBD-related surrogate markers. However, the benefit on all-cause mortalities was not demonstrated.

Keywords: Chronic kidney disease-mineral bone disorders; Cinacalcet; Meta-analysis.