Efficacy and safety of Xiaoaiping injection for breast cancer: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Xiaoaiping injection, extracted from the Chinese herb Marsdenia tenacissima (Roxb.) Wight et Arn., is a broad-spectrum anti-tumor drug and has been widely used for the treatment of breast cancer in China. The aim of this study is to systematically investigate the efficacy and safety of Xiaoaiping injection for the treatment of breast cancer.

Methods: We will perform the comprehensive literature search in the following databases from their inceptions to August 2020 for data extraction: PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Embase, the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Database, Chinese Science and Technology Periodical Database, and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database. Cochrane Risk of Bias tool will be used to assess the risk of bias of included studies. The RevMan 5.4 and Stata 16.0 software will be applied for statistical analyses. Statistical heterogeneity will be computed by I2 tests. Sensitivity analysis will be conducted to evaluate the stability of the results. The publication bias will be evaluated by funnel plots and Egger's test. The quality of evidence will be assessed by the GRADE system.

Results: The results of our research will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Conclusion: The conclusion of this study will provide evidence to show whether Xiaoaiping injection is an effective intervention for patient with breast cancer.

Osf registration number: 10.17605/OSF.IO/4ZUXC.