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. 2018 Nov 13;2018(11):CD010559. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD010559.pub2

Yang 2014.

Methods Design: parallel RCT
Randomisation method: not reported
Blinding: no
Power calculation: no
Dropouts/withdrawals: no
Participants Cancer patients with expected survival time of more than 3 months; Karnofsky ≥ 60
Number (treatment/control): 62 (32/30)
Mean age (range): not reported
Gender (M/F): 35/27
Country: Jiangsu province, China
Setting: hospital
Interventions Moxa stick + conventional medicine vs conventional medicine
Treatment group
  • Moxa stick

    • Moxa stick on the acupoints RN8 (shenque) and bilateral ST36 (zusanli) for 15 minutes per acupoint, additional acupoint RN6 (qihai) for those with syndrome of qi deficiency or acupoint RN12 (zhongwan) for those with nausea and vomiting, once per day, 5 times per week

    • Treatment duration: 30 days (beginning at the same day of chemotherapy)

  • Conventional treatment

    • Dexamethasone and ondansetron

  • Chemotherapy


Control group
  • Conventional treatment

    • Dexamethasone and ondansetron

  • Chemotherapy

Outcomes WBC count, Hb, platelet, vomiting (WHO grade 3 to 4), Karnofsky score at the end of treatment
Notes
Risk of bias
Bias Authors' judgement Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias) Unclear risk Not described
Allocation concealment (selection bias) Unclear risk No relevant description
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) 
 All outcomes Low risk None lost to follow‐up
Selective reporting (reporting bias) Unclear risk Limited outcome measures were reported.
Other bias Low risk Baseline characteristic data were comparable.
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) 
 All outcomes High risk No blinding
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) 
 Subjective outcomes High risk No blinding
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) 
 Objective outcomes Low risk No blinding; however, machine‐measured objective outcomes were not influenced substantially