Objective To overview the systematic reviews of the effectiveness and safety of the charged-particle radiation therapy. Methods Databases including CNKI, WanFang Data, PubMed, and EMbase were electronically searched from January 2007 to November 2020. Two investigators independently screened literature, extracted data, and assessed the quality of the included studies by AMSTAR 2, and then reported results through a narrative synthesis of outcomes. Results A total of 6 systematic reviews were identified. One systematic review demonstrated moderate quality and the other 5 demonstrated critically low quality. The charged-particle radiation therapy had a wide range of applications. Its effectiveness was superior to traditional radiotherapy methods on various types of tumors in various regions of the body, with acceptable side effects. Specifically, the effectiveness and safety outcomes of carbon ion radiotherapy was superior to those of proton radiotherapy. Conclusions Current evidence shows that the charged-particle radiation therapy has superior effectiveness and limited toxicity, though the studies are of relatively low quality. High quality and larger sample size researches are required in the future.
ObjectiveTo develop a transparent evaluation tool for the transparency of clinical practice guidelines.MethodsLiterature, books and policy documents related to the transparency of guidelines were retrieved from PubMed, EMbase, Web of Science, WanFang Data and CNKI databases to form a pool of items. After two rounds of Delphi expert consultation, the items were modified and scored to determine whether to be included in the final evaluation system. Expert consensus would determine the organization and evaluation method of the final tool.ResultsA total of 77 references were included, and 399 items related to transparency of guidelines were extracted. The items pool containing 53 items was formed after normalization and de-duplication. After two rounds of Delphi consultation, the evaluation tool for transparency of clinical practice guidelines covering 32 items in 6 areas was formed. The established tool consisted of planning (5 items), personnel selection (6 items), conflict of interest management (6 items), recommendation formation process (8 items), external review process (3 items), and guide reporting process (4 items).ConclusionsThe developed evaluation tool for transparency of clinical practice guidelines can provide a standard for the formulation, evaluation and utilization of guidelines from the perspective of transparency.
ObjectiveTo evaluate the reporting quality of systematic reviews (SRs)/meta-analyses on acupuncture focusing on literature screening results and explore the influencing factors of the complete reporting.MethodsPubMed, EMbase, CNKI, WanFang Data, and VIP databases were searched to collect SRs/meta-analyses on acupuncture from inception to December 31st, 2019. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and evaluated the reporting quality of literature screening results of SRs/meta-analyses on acupuncture based on PRISMA statement. Logistic regression model analysis was applied to explore the influencing factors of the complete reporting rate of literature screening results. Statistical analysis was performed by using Excel 2016 and SPSS 16.0 software.ResultsA total of 1 227 SRs/meta-analyses were included. Only 62.3% SRs fully reported the four parts of literature screening results. The parts with a low reporting rate included the number of studies assessed for eligibility (73.2%) and the reasons for exclusions at each stage (67.0%). And the reporting rate of the literature screening flowchart was also low (63.6%). The reporting rate of literature screening results in Chinese SRs was lower than that in English SRs, and there was significantly statistical difference (P<0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the type of published journal, publication year, pages of article and the number of searched databases were correlated with the complete reporting rate of literature screening results (P<0.001).ConclusionsThe complete reporting rate of the literature screening results of SRs on acupuncture is low, especially in Chinese SRs. The complete reporting rate of literature screening results is significantly higher for SRs published after PRISMA statement, in SCI journals, with longer length and more searched databases.
A surrogate endpoint is intended to substitute for a clinical endpoint and is expected to predict the effect of the intervention on clinical endpoints based on epidemiologic, diagnostic, and pathophysiologic evidence. A validated surrogate endpoint can reduce sample size and follow-up duration of clinical trials; hence, the evaluation and validation methods of surrogate endpoints have been discussed for more than 30 years around the world. This paper comprehensively introduced the definition evolution, evaluation, and validation methods of surrogate endpoints, and provided references for future research.
Bias in clinical trials or systematic reviews may result in overestimation or underestimation of the benefits or harms of the interventions, and conclusions may be false. Meta-epidemiological study is an important tool to identify and quantify the impact of potential bias characteristics, and it can provide empirical evidence for controlling the bias. This paper summarized the origin, development and definition of the meta-epidemiology study, and discussed the challenges and development trends, so as to provide references for carrying out the meta-epidemiological studies.