Non-Pharmacological Interventions for Cough in Patients With Lung Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Thirty-six of 38 included studies were rated high risk overall, mainly because participants were not blinded and they reported their own cough outcomes. The cough severity meta-analysis had very high heterogeneity (I2 = 94.9%), and publication bias was significant (p = 0.003), so the pooled effect may not be stable. No study reported cough frequency, and two studies that reported cough occurrence did not specify the tools used. Sixteen trials combined a non-drug intervention with Western or Chinese medicine, and some interventions were multicomponent, so the contribution of any single component cannot be separated. The evidence was graded very low certainty for cough severity, cough-related quality of life, expectoration, dyspnea and general quality of life. Thirty-four of 38 trials were conducted in China, so the findings may not generalise to other populations. Attrition was high in some trials of advanced lung cancer patients, with 26.9% to 37.0%. The search was limited to English and Chinese articles.

The authors report no funding and declare no conflicts of interest.

Do not read the pooled cough severity result as proof that a specific non-drug treatment works for your patient. The certainty was very low, 36 of 38 trials were high risk of bias, and cough frequency was not measured objectively.