Phase I early-phase clinical studies aim at investigating the safety and the under-lying dose-toxicity relationship of a drug or combination. While little may still be known about the compound’s properties, it is crucial to consider quantitative infor-mation available from any studies that may have been conducted previously on the same drug. A meta-analytic approach has the advantages of being able to properly account for between-study heterogeneity, and it may be readily extended to prediction or shrinkage applications. Here we propose a simple and robust two-stage approach for the estimation of maximum tolerated dose(s) (MTDs) utilizing penalized logistic regression and Bayesian random-effects meta-analysis methodology. Implementa-tion is facilitated using standard R packages. The properties of the proposed methods are investigated in Monte-Carlo simulations. The investigations are motivated and illustrated by two examples from oncology.