Review of systematic reviews of non-pharmacological interventions to improve quality of life in cancer survivors (2017) White (no declared COI), Chald

[Esther12]

I only had a very quick look at this, and thought I'd post as it seemed odd that there was no declared COI from White when just a few months earlier Swiss Re were describing his as one of their Chief Medical Officers.

http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/7/11/e015860

I first opened it to see how they dealt with potential problems with bias for self-reported quality of life in these nonblinded trials... I didn't see anything about it. Seems that they may have just ignored that one. Didn't see anything on objective outcomes either, but I really did just skim through a lot of the paragraphs.

There was this in possible reporting bias:

We found little overlap between reviews (tabulation available on request), reflecting their specific inclusion and exclusion criteria and interest in very specific interventions and cancer types. We did not evaluate the methodological quality or bias of the original studies within each systematic review. Ten reviews planned to assess publication bias; three of these could not perform any specific tests of bias due to small samples.8 23 27 Consequently seven studies tested for publication bias.9 10 12 17 19 20 22 Three of these reported that publication bias was not significant.10 20 22 Four reviews9 12 17 19 reported significant publication bias suggesting caution in assuming there is definitive evidence for exercise and CBT.

Didn't seem to stop them being confident in their own conclusion though:

Conclusions
Systematic reviews of patients with cancer and their QoL showed that effective interventions included physical activity, CBT and mindfulness-based stress reduction training. Personalised lifestyle interventions showed promise, as did social and emotional support.

 

[TiredSam]

I think this review of systematic reviews needs to be reviewed.

 

[Revel]

"Conclusions
Systematic reviews of patients with cancer and their QoL showed that effective interventions included physical activity, CBT and mindfulness-based stress reduction training."

The conclusions drawn appear to be the panacea for all ills - or is White simply a 'one trick pony'?

OK, so I was looking for an excuse to use the equine emoji, guilty as charged . . .