Search results
A total of 470 studies were identified from the database search, 338 did
not meet the inclusion criteria and were therefore excluded. Of the 132
studies were retrieved for full-text evaluation, a total of 22 trials
met the inclusion criteria[16-37].
Six trials were update reports of published
trials[17,
25, 26,
28, 29,
33], one trial involving gastric or GEJ
carcinoma[18]. Thus finally 15
randomized controlled trials were included in this meta-analysis (figure
1). Table 1 listed the baseline characteristics of patients and studies.
The quality of each included study was roughly assessed according to
Jadad scale, four trials[16,
21, 34,
37] were double-blind,
placebo-controlled trials, thus had a Jadad score of 5, and the
remaining eleven trials were open-label controlled trials, thus had a
Jadad score of 3.