• Charlene H L Wong, Irene X Y Wu, Lynda G Balneaves, Raymond S K Lo, Claudia M Witt, Wu Justin C Y JCY Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong; Hong Kong Institute of Integrative Medicine, The Chines, Ting Hung Leung, and Chung Vincent C H VCH School of Chinese Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong; Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chines.
• Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong; Hong Kong Institute of Integrative Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong.
• J Pain Symptom Manage. 2019 Dec 1; 58 (6): 1002-1014.e7.

ContextChinese medicine modalities, including acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine (CHM), have been used as palliative interventions among cancer patients. More research should be conducted to confirm their effectiveness.ObjectivesThe objective of this study was to prioritize Chinese medicine clinical research questions for cancer palliative care.MethodsTwelve international experts, including physicians, Chinese medicine practitioners, nurses, and clinical research methodologists (n = 3 from each category), from Asia, North America, Australia, and Europe participated in a two-round Delphi survey for prioritizing 29 research questions identified from existing systematic reviews. The experts were asked to 1) rate clinical importance of answering the questions on a nine-point Likert scale; 2) provide qualitative comments on their ratings; and 3) suggest outcome measurement approaches.ResultsEight research priorities reached positive consensus after the two-round Delphi survey. Six of the priorities focused on acupuncture and related therapies, of which median ratings on importance ranged from 7.0 to 8.0 (interquartile range: 1.00 to 2.50), and the percentage agreement ranged from 75.0% to 91.7%. The remaining two priorities related to CHM, with median ratings ranged from 7.0 to 8.0 (interquartile range: 1.00 to 1.50) and percentage agreement ranged from 75.0% to 83.3%. Neither positive nor negative consensus was established among the remaining 21 questions.ConclusionThe findings will inform rational allocation of scarce research funding for evaluating the effectiveness of Chinese medicine for cancer palliative care, especially on acupuncture and related therapies. Further research on herb safety and herb-drug interaction should be performed before conducting international trials on CHM.Copyright © 2019 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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