SynthesisSupportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer2020
The efficacy of placebo for the treatment of cancer-related fatigue: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Management of Fatigue in Adult Survivors of Cancer: ASCO-Society for Integrative Oncology Guideline Update.Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology · 2024Guideline
- Cancer-related fatigue in patients treated with mistletoe extracts: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2022Pooled it
- Placebo response in trials of drug treatments for cancer-related fatigue: a systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression.BMJ supportive & palliative care · 2020Pooled it
- Open-Label Placebo for the Treatment of Cancer-Related Fatigue in Patients with Advanced Cancer: A Randomized Controlled Trial.The oncologist · 2022Trial
- Design Characteristics and Survival Outcomes of Local Trials Supporting the Approval of Targeted Anticancer Drugs in China.Cancer medicine · 2026Article
- Complete tumor regression with exclusive Ayurvedic treatment in adenocarcinoma of prostate: a case report.Journal of medical case reports · 2026Article
- Evaluating Ma-ol-asal Syrup for Chemotherapy-induced Fatigue in Gastrointestinal Cancer Patients: A Randomized Double-blinded Placebo-controlled Clinical Trial :.Galen medical journal · 2025Article
- Review
- Light Therapy for Cancer-Related Fatigue in (Non-)Hodgkin Lymphoma Survivors: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial.Cancers · 2021Article
- Fatigue in Cancer Patients in Palliative Care-A Review on Pharmacological Interventions.Cancers · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeCancer-related fatigue (CRF) is a common symptom among patients with cancer. The efficacy of placebo, however, was never the main objective of any meta-analysis. Predicting the efficacy of placebo may facilitate researchers in designing future clinical trials for the treatment of CRF.
methodsWe performed a systematic review searching for prospective clinical trials comparing any treatment versus placebo for the treatment of CRF. We included studies that enrolled patients with any primary site of neoplasia and any stage of cancer. We excluded all studies that assessed fatigue related to any treatment. The primary endpoint of this study is the mean effect of placebo on fatigue according to the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness (FACIT-F) and Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI) scales. The secondary endpoint was the proportion of patients who reported improvement in fatigue (response rate).
resultsWe found 520 studies, and 29 studies with 3758 participants were included in the meta-analysis. Placebo had a mean effect of + 4.88 (95%CI + 2.45 to + 7.29) using the FACIT-F scale, although it was statistically worse than the interventions studied (p = 0.005). Using the BFI scale, placebo had an average effect of + 0.64 (95%CI + 0.02 to + 1.30), although it was also worse than the other interventions studied (p = 0.002). In terms of the response rate, 29% (95%CI 25-32%) of patients taking a placebo reported a significant improvement in CRF compared with 36% of patients treated with other interventions (p = 0.030).
conclusionsPlacebo treatments had a significant effect on CRF, and predicting these effects may help design future studies for CRF.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.