Review: chemotherapy plus supportive care improves survival and quality of life in advanced or metastatic gastrointestinal cancer more than supportive care alone
Q Are cancer treatments that include supportive care (SC) more effective than SC alone for improving length of survival and quality of life in patients with advanced or metastatic gastrointestinal (GI) cancer?
METHODS
Data sources:
Medline (1966–2002), CINAHL (1982–2001), EMBASE/Excerpta Medica (1980–2002), Best Evidence (1991–2001), HealthSTAR (1975–2001), CancerLIT (1966–2001), Oncolink (1994–2001), PsycINFO (1967–2001), Science and Social Science Citation Indexes (1981–2001), Cochrane Library (Issue 2, 2001), Grey literature sources, current research and trials registers, the internet, reference lists of articles, experts in the field, and hand searches of Ann Oncol, Br J Cancer, Eur J Cancer, Support Care Cancer, and Cancer Rev.
Study selection and assessment:
randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in any language that compared chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or surgery with SC interventions for patients ⩾18 years of age who were diagnosed with and treated for cancer of the stomach, GI/gastric cancer, or colorectal/colon cancer in any …
