Efficacy and safety of oral zinc sulfate in the prevention of chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis: Protocol for a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

BACKGROUND: Oral mucositis has been an extremely serious complication resulted from cytotoxic effects of the chemotherapy among cancer patients. Several randomized controlled trials investigated the efficacy of zinc sulfate in prevention of this morbid condition among cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, however conclusive findings has not yet been generated. This systematic review will assess the efficacy and safety of oral zinc sulfate for chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis. METHODS: We will electronically search all potential citations in PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) from their inception to April 2018. The randomized controlled trials, which investigated the efficacy of oral zinc sulfate for chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis will be considered. We will assign 2 independent investigators to perform search, screen citations, extract data, and appraise risk of bias. And then, the primary investigator will adopt RevMan 5.3 software to complete all statistical analyses. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The findings from this systematic review and meta-analysis will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal for publication. Moreover, we will disseminate all results in any topic-related conference. REGISTRATION NUMBER: This protocol has been registered with a number of CRD42018093605.