Efficacy and safety of Xihuang pill for gastric cancer A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Xihuang pill has been widely applied as a promising adjunctive drug for gastric cance. However, the exact effects and safety of Xihuang pill have yet to be systematically investigated. We aimed to summarize the effificacy and safety of Xihuang pill for the treatment of advanced GC through the meta-analysis, in order to provide scientific reference for the design of future clinical trials. Methods: The protocol followed Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocols. Relevant randomized controlled trials were searched from PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Embase, the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Database, Chinese Science and echnology Periodical Database, and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database. Papers in English or Chinese published from their inception to October 2020 will be included without any restrictions. Cochrane Risk of Bias tool will be used to assess the risk of bias of included studies. The RevMan 5.4 and Stata 16.0 software will be applied for statistical analyses. Statistical heterogeneity will be computed by I-2 tests. Sensitivity analysis will be conducted to evaluate the stability of the results. The publication bias will be evaluated by funnel plots and Egger test. The quality of evidence will be assessed by the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluate system. Results: The results of our research will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Conclusion: The conclusion of this study will provide helpful evidence of the effect and safety of Xihuang pill for the treatment of GC in clinical practice. OSF registration number: 10.17605/OSF.IO/VFJAK.