Table 2.

Comparison of adverse events between the experimental and control group.

Adverse events	Experimental group	Control group	Analysis method	Heterogeneity		Risk Ratio (RR)	95% CI	p-value
	No. patients (n) ref	No. patients (n) ref		I2 (%)	p-value
Nausea and vomiting	433	416	Random	51	0.02	0.74	0.60–0.92	0.006
Liver damage	273	259	Fixed	0	0.95	0.46	0.36–0.60	<0.00001
Kidney damage	218	204	Fixed	0	0.97	0.69	0.38–1.26	0.23
Peripheral neurotoxicity	147	145	Fixed	0	0.60	0.38	0.17–0.84	0.02
Fever	141	139	Fixed	14	0.32	0.61	0.41–0.90	0.01
Abdominal pain	141	139	Fixed	0	0.86	0.51	0.39–0.66	<0.00001
Diarrhoea	85	79	Fixed	50	0.16	0.71	0.47–1.09	0.12
Leukopoenia	377	361	Fixed	0	0.56	0.60	0.50–0.70	<0.00001
Haemoglobin reduction	307	297	Fixed	0	1.00	0.55	0.42–0.73	<0.0001
Thrombocytopenia	233	229	Fixed	0	0.86	0.76	0.56–1.04	0.08
Myelosuppression	73	70	Fixed	0	1.00	0.67	0.42–1.08	0.10
Bilirubin increased	116	118	Fixed	0	0.98	0.45	0.30–0.67	<0.0001
Alopecia	95	89	Fixed	0	0.78	0.31	0.14–0.68	0.003

Control group: conventional treatments alone group; Experimental group: conventional treatments and KAI combined group. KAI: Kang-ai injection.