薑對癌症病人因化學藥物治療引起噁心與嘔吐之控制成效－系統性回顧暨統合分析

Background: Nausea and vomiting are the most common chemotherapy related side effects and the severe nausea or vomiting may cause treatment interruptions, which could influence the overall patient survival. Earlier animal studies suggest that ginger extracts may help relieve the nausea or vomiting of chemotherapy. Nevertheless, there is still controversy surrounding the effectiveness of ginger in relieving chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting in cancer patients. Objective: The objective of this study was to determine whether ginger is effective in relieving chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting in cancer patients. Methods: Using a systematic approach, we searched for literature published between 2000 and 2017 in the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), PubMed, ProQuest, and Cochrane Library databases. We used Comprehensive Meta-Analysis version 2 (CMA2) to perform our meta-analysis. After the screening and review processes, we identified 6 studies that met our selection criteria. Among these studies, 5 contained complete data for meta-analysis. Results: The overall mean effect size for relieving acute nausea and vomiting was -1.85 (p = 0.064), indicating the ginger group did not show statistically significant differences in relieving acute nausea and vomiting compared with the placebo group. The overall mean effect size for relieving delayed nausea and vomiting was -2.54 (p = 0.011), and the finding showed statistically significant decrease in delayed nausea and vomiting in the ginger group. Discussion: The empirical results of this meta-analysis can serve as a reference for hospital in developing methods for the prevention of chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting in cancer patients.