Complementary and Alternative Medicine for Cancer Pain: An Overview of Systematic Reviews

Table 2

Summary of finding for 27 included systematic reviews.

Study	Search time	Study (sample size)	Interventions	Comparison	Main result	Recommendation	Evidence level
Bradt et al. 2011 [31]	September 2010	7 RCTs (391)	Music	Standard care	Benefits	Yes	Low^1,2
Choi et al. 2012 [36]	April 2011	15 RCTs (1157)	Acupuncture	Drug	No effect	No	Low^2,3
			Acupuncture + drug	Drug	Benefits		Low^2,3
			Acupuncture	Sham acupuncture	No effect		Verylow^1,2,3
Lian et al. 2013 [43]	June 2010	6 RCTs (476)	Acupuncture + drug	Drug	Benefits	No	Low^2,3
Ernst 2009 [23] and; Ernst et al. 2011 [32]※	September 2010	1 RCT (23)	Reflexology	No treatment	Benefits	No	Low^1,3
Ernst 2009 [24]	November 2008	5 RCTs (781)	Massage	Control	Benefits	No	Moderate^3
Falkensteiner et al. 2011 [33]	July 2010	3 RCTs, 2 N-RCT (1841)	Massage	Control	Benefits	No	Moderate^1
Pan et al. 2013 [46]§	November 2012	4 RCTs	Massage	Control	No effect	No	Very low^1,2,3
Wilkinson et al. 2008 [21]	2006	4 RCTs (212)	Massage	Control	Benefits	No	Low^1,3
Haseen et al. 2009 [25]#	January 2009	1 RCT (54)	Lycopene	No treatment	Benefits	No	Low^1,3
Hurlow et al. 2012 [37]	April 2008	3 RCTs (88)	TENS	Placebo	Inconsistent	No	Low^1,3
Kienle and Kiene 2010 [29]	October 2009	5 RCTs (745)	Viscum album l + cancer treatment	Cancer treatment	Inconsistent	No	Low^2,3
Kim et al. 2010 [30]§	July 2010	2 N-RCTs (58)	Reflexology	No treatment	Benefits	No	Low^4
Lee et al. 2009 [26]§	February 2009	1 CCT (133)	Qigong	Control	Benefits	No	Low^4
Lee et al. 2011 [34]	January 2009	1 RCT (60)	Cupping	Drug	Benefits	No	Low^1,3
Martín-Sánchez et al. 2009 [27]	February 2008	5 RCTs (290)	Cannabis	Placebo	Benefits	No	Low^1,3
Gorin et al. 2012 [38]	2010	37 RCTs (4199)	Psychosocial intervention	Usual care	Benefits	Yes	Moderate^3
Edwards et al. 2004 [45]§	June 2011	3 RCTs (279)	Psychosocial intervention	Usual care	Benefits	Yes	Low^1,3
Johannsen et al. 2013 [42]§	December 2012	26 trials (1786)	Psychosocial intervention	Usual care	Benefits	Yes	Moderate^3
Marie et al. 2013 [44]	May 2012	15 trials (1710)	Education	Usual care	Benefits	Yes	Moderate^3
Vandervaart et al. 2009 [28]	December 2008	2 RCTs (40)	Reiki	Control	Benefits	No	Low^1,3
Xu et al. 2007 [20]	2006	41 RCTs (2902)	Chinese herbal medicine + cancer therapy	Cancer therapy	Benefits	No	Low^1,3
Wang et al. 2013 [48]	December 2012	16 RCTs (1008)	Chinese herbal medicine + conventional treatment	Conventional treatment	Benefits	No	Low^1,3
Bao et al. 2013 [40]	December 2012	7 RCTs (521)	Compound kushen injection	Radiotherapy or bisphosphonates	Benefits	No	Low^1,3
Zhang et al. 2012 [39]	March 2011	7 RCTs (603)	Music intervention	Standard care	Benefits	No	Low^1,2
Milazzo et al. 2006 [19]	2005	2 RCTs (57)	Homeopathy (Traumeel)	No treatment/Placebo	Benefits	No	Low^1,3
Puetz et al. 2013 [47]	January 2012	18 trials (1237)	Creative arts therapies	No treatment	Benefits	No	Low^2,3

TENS: Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation; RCT: randomized controlled trial; N-RCT: non-randomized controlled trial; CCT: clinical controlled trial; ※breast cancer and lung cancer; §Breast cancer; #Prostate cancer; ¹the total sample size was small; ²there was a high heterogeneity; ³the risk of bias was high; ⁴observational study.