Efficacy and safety of acupuncture combined with Chinese herbal medicine in the treatment of primary liver cancer: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Primary liver cancer (PLC) is a common cancer, and its morbidity and mortality are ranked 6th and 3rd in the world for malignant tumors, respectively. And this number is still on the rise, seriously endangering people's health. In recent years, acupuncture combined with Chinese herbal medicine have been widely used in the treatment of PLC, and there are few restrictions. However, we have not found a meta-analysis of their synergistic effects. Therefore, this systematic review and meta-analysis will evaluate the efficacy and acupuncture combined with Chinese herbal medicine in the treatment of primary liver cancer. METHOD: We will search the following databases from inception up to August 20, 2021: PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, AMED, Cochrane Library, CNKI, VIP, CBM, and Wanfang. There will be no restrictions regarding publication date or language. We will apply a combination of medical keywords and words, including “acupuncture,” “Chinese herbal medicine” and “primary liver cancer”. Additionally, we will manually search all reference lists from relevant systematic reviews to find other eligible studies. We will use the random effects model in REVMAN v5.3 for meta-analysis. The study for acupuncture combined with Chinese herbal medicine in the treatment of PLC was a randomized controlled study. Two researchers will independently review the research selection, data extraction, and research quality assessments. Finally, we will observe the outcome measures. RESULTS: This study will provide evidence-based medical evidence for the treatment of PLC with a combination of acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine, and provide new ideas and methods for the treatment of PLC. Registration number: INPLASY202180103