Macia 1991.

Methods	Randomised controlled trial. Duration of follow up not reported.
Participants	Adults (n = 92, age and sex not reported) receiving radiotherapy for cancers of head and neck, breast and abdominopelvic area. Nutritional status of participants unclear. Numbers of withdrawals and deaths not reported.
Interventions	Dietary instructions on appropriate alimentation during radiotherapy given verbally and in writing (n = 30) versus ad lib food intake and no dietary instruction (n = 62).
Outcomes	Weight*, TSF*, MAUC*, MAMC*, BMI*, total protein, albumin, transferrin, total lymphocyte count, iron, cholesterol, triglycerides, clinical observations, overall food* intake.
Notes	Dietary advice given by doctors from nutrition and dietetic unit.
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Used coin toss to randomise participants.
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	No details.
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) Clinical outcomes	Low risk	Paper states that clinical variables were assessed by doctors unaware of group allocation.
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) Functional outcomes	Unclear risk	Not stated.
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) Nutritional outcomes	Unclear risk	Not stated.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	High risk	Numbers of withdrawals and deaths not reported.
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Unclear risk	All outcomes reported but as mean change at baseline and end of follow‐up according to site of tumour therefore change scores were calculated and SDs imputed. No response received from author to requests for data.
Other bias	High risk	Baseline variables not given, not sure if groups similar at baseline.