Liu 2000.

Methods	Study design: randomised cross‐over trial Duration of the study, recruitment: no information Country: China
Participants	22 participants with cancer (8 with lung cancer, 5 with gastric cancer, 4 with colorectal cancer, 4 with breast cancer, 1 with neck metastatic carcinoma) 13 males and 9 females Age, median (range): 59 (35 to 73) years
Interventions	Intervention (n = 11): Bifidobacterium combined with chemotherapy Control (n = 11): chemotherapy alone Bifidobacterium capsule (2 capsules per time, 2 times a day) was taken from 1 day before chemotherapy to the sixth day of chemotherapy in each phase. Length of the washout period was about 21 days
Outcomes	Severity of diarrhoea
Notes	Article written in Chinese
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	No details provided
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	No details provided
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	High risk	During the control phase, no treatment was provided
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) Subjective outcomes	Unclear risk	No details provided
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) Objective outcomes	Low risk	No information; however it is unlikely that assessment of objective outcomes (mortality) would have been influenced
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) Subjective outcomes	Low risk	No loss to follow‐up
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) Objective outcomes	Low risk	No loss to follow‐up
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Unclear risk	No study protocol available; however all outcomes prespecified in the methods section were reported in the results section
Other bias	High risk	Cross‐over design ignored in the analyses