Quality assessment of reporting items in randomized controlled trials of Chinese herbal medicine as an adjunctive therapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer / 国际生物医学工程杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the reporting item quality of randomized controlled trials of Chinese herbal medicine as an adjunctive therapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Methods The terms including Chinese medicine, Chinese herbal medicine, randomized controlled trials, and non-small cell lung cancer were searched in Chinese and English databases by computer systems to collect relevant literatures. Based on the CONSORT 2010 (consolidated standards of reporting trials 2010), the reporting item quality of the abstracts and main text in eligible papers was evaluated. Results Ninety-five eligible studies were identified from 692 potential eligible articles. None reported all of abstract and main text items in CONSORT 2010. Only 4.12％could be identified as the randomized trial in the title. More than 40％of reports showed the scientific background or rationale in the abstract but not in the main text. Three (3.16％) eligible reports defined the primary or secondary outcome measures. None reported complete information of subjects throughout the clinical trial process. Results A total of 95 eligible papers were collected, of which 0 papers reported complete abstracts and text entries according to the CONSORT. The titles of 4.12％papers were identified as randomized trials. More than 40％of the papers only reported the study purpose or hypothesis in the abstract. 3.16％of the papers reported primary and secondary efficacy index entries, and 0 papers reported complete information of subjects from enrollment to included data analysis sets. Conclusion There is a serious problem of items shortage in the literatures of randomized controlled clinical trials on Chinese herbal medicine as an adjunctive therapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer. The randomized controlled clinical trials of Chinese herbal medicine as an adjunctive therapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer should be reported based on the CONSORT to improve the quality of trials.