Preventive effect and safety of Chinese herbal medicine mouthwash in chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis A protocol for systematic review and meta analysis

Background: Oral mucositis (OM), one of the most common side effects for cancer patients who have undergone chemotherapy, can cause severe impairment to patients' functional ability and impact their quality of life, resulting in delayed and/or incomplete treatment. Traditional Chinese medicine offers empirical herbal decoctions to gargle for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced OM; however, evidence for its clinical efficacy and safety is lacking. Therefore, we provide a protocol to evaluate the preventive effect and safety of Chinese herbal medicine mouthwash in chemotherapy-induced OM. Methods: We will comprehensively retrieve relevant articles published till August 15, 2020, in the following electronic databases: the Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMBASE, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure Database, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, Chinese Science and Technique Journals Database, and the Wan-fang Database. Only randomized controlled trials will be included. We will use the criteria provided by the Cochrane Handbook for quality assessment and risk assessment of the included studies and use the RevMan 5.3 software for meta-analysis of the preventive effect and safety. Results: This study will assess the preventive effect and safety of Chinese herbal medicine mouthwash in chemotherapy-induced OM. Conclusion: This systematic review will provide evidence-based medical corroboration for the clinical application of the Chinese herbal medicine mouthwash in chemotherapy-induced OM. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42020206614.