Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in cancer patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Toxoplasmosis, caused by Toxoplasma gondii, is a great public health concern in cancer patients, which can induce serious pathological effects. This systematic review and meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the worldwide seroprevalence rate of T. gondii infection among cancer patients. A search was conducted on five electronic databases that reported data on T. gondii seroprevalence in cancer patients. The searching process resulted in the inclusion of 57 studies. The results showed that T. gondii had the pooled prevalence of 30.8% in cancer patients using a random-effect model (95% CI: 26.3-35.6). Cancer patients had a higher overall prevalence of T. gondii infection, compared to those without cancer. Furthermore, the odds ratio of toxoplasmosis in cancer patients was 3.1 times, compared to that of controls (95% CI: 2.5-3.8, P < 0.0001). Toxoplasmosis had a higher prevalence in females (40%) than in males (33%). Furthermore, the age group of upper 40 years had the highest prevalence infection rate (30%). In addition, a significant association was also observed between toxoplasmosis infection and year (P < 0.001), type of cancer (P < 0.001), country (P < 0.001), gender (P < 0.001), age (P = 0.006) and diagnostic method (P < 0.001) in cancer patients. Considering the high prevalence of T. gondii infection in cancer patients and its serious outcomes, the researchers are suggested to carry out further studies to prevent and control toxoplasmosis among this population.