title: [Treatment of chemotherapy-induced leucopenia in patients with malignant tumor by Chinese herbal medicine: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the effectiveness and safety of traditional Chinese herbal medicine (TCHM) for chemotherapy-induced leucopenia in patients with malignant tumor.
  
  
  METHODS
  Chinese database (CNKI, VIP, CBM, Wanfang Database) and English database (Medline, Cochrane Library) were retrieved with the deadline of September 2013. Participants were cancer patients confirmed by pathology waiting for chemotherapy. We included randomized clinical trials (RCTs) testing chemotherapy plus TCHM vs. chemotherapy plus placebo, chemotherapy alone, conventional treatment, or TCHM plus chemotherapy combined with conventional treatment vs chemotherapy combined with conventional treat ment. The primary outcomes were WBC count, leucopenia incidence, and adverse reactions. Assessments of methodological quality, including randomization, allocation, concealment, blindness, dropping-out, loss of follow-ups were also conducted according to the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Review of Interventions. Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan5. 2 Software provided by Cochrane Collaboration.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eighty-seven RCTs (involving 8 468 patients) were included. All these studies were published in Chinese. Of these only two papers were of high quality. Methods of randomization, scheme concealment, blindness, dropping-out, loss of follow-up, samples estimation were not accurately reported in the rest RCTs. The pooled results of WBC count showed that chemotherapy combined with TCHM was generally better than chemotherapy alone [MD =0. 64 x 109/L (0.41, 0.88), P < 0.01]. Auxiliary treatment of Compound Ejiao Syrup, Diyu Shengbai Tablet, Chinese compounds for invigorating Pi and supplementing Shen during the chemotherapeutic course could elevate peripheral blood WBC counts, and decrease the incidence of leucopenia.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Chinese herbal medicine might have potential effects in preventing the occurrence of leucopenia, which need to be confirmed by launching higher quality clinical trials.
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Al
authors.forename: Hui-min
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Ma
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D007970:Leukopenia / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000188:drug therapy*; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D008517:Phytotherapy; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal