Efficacy of ginger on chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in breast cancer : A meta-analysis
- 1Department of Thyroid and Breast Surgery, Huaihe Hospital of Henan University, Kaifeng, Henan, China.
Abstract
Background:: It is unclear that the efficacy of ginger in breast cancer (BC) patients with chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV).
Methods:: An extensive search of 4 databases Web of Science, Embase, PubMed, and Cochrane Library was conducted for clinical trials evaluating ginger in the treatment of CINV in BC patients, covering literature up to July 24, 2024. Outcome measures included the effect on scores, or the number of events related to nausea and vomiting, as well as scores of acute nausea, delayed nausea, and improvements in the nutritional status of BC patients. For the screened studies, Excel 2010 was used to extract key study information and specific data for each outcome indicator. Review Manager 5.4 was employed for the risk of bias assessment, and meta-analysis of the extracted data from the included studies was performed using Stata software.
Results:: A total of 9 randomized controlled trials were included. The risk of bias assessment indicated that most studies were of moderate quality. The meta-analysis results showed no significant difference in the reduction in the number of nausea events, nausea scores, acute nausea scores, delayed nausea scores, number of vomiting events, or vomiting scores between the ginger group and the control group using antiemetic drugs or placebo. However, ginger demonstrated a favorable safety profile in terms of adverse effects.
Conclusion:: Ginger appears to be safe for BC patients; however, its inhibitory effect on CINV remains inconclusive. Due to the limited number of available studies, accurate conclusions regarding the effectiveness of ginger in managing CINV in BC patients cannot be drawn. More rigorously designed, large-sample, high-quality randomized controlled trials are needed to validate the specific effects of ginger in this patient population.
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BibTeX
@article{tian2026efficacy,
title = {{Efficacy of ginger on chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in breast cancer : A meta-analysis}},
author = {Yanyan Tian and Mingde Ma and Zhengye Wang},
journal = {Medicine},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1097/md.0000000000051071},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13727260},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Efficacy of ginger on chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in breast cancer : A meta-analysis
AU - Yanyan Tian
AU - Mingde Ma
AU - Zhengye Wang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/30
JO - Medicine
DO - 10.1097/md.0000000000051071
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13727260
AB - Background:: It is unclear that the efficacy of ginger in breast cancer (BC) patients with chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV). Methods:: An extensive search of 4 databases Web of Science, Embase, PubMed, and Cochrane Library was conducted for clinical trials evaluating ginger in the treatment of CINV in BC patients, covering literature up to July 24, 2024. Outcome measures included the effect on scores, or the number of events related to nausea and vomiting, as well as scores of acute nausea, delayed nausea, and improvements in the nutritional status of BC patients. For the screened studies, Excel 2010 was used to extract key study information and specific data for each outcome indicator. Review Manager 5.4 was employed for the risk of bias assessment, and meta-analysis of the extracted data from the included studies was performed using Stata software. Results:: A total of 9 randomized controlled trials were included. The risk of bias assessment indicated that most studies were of moderate quality. The meta-analysis results showed no significant difference in the reduction in the number of nausea events, nausea scores, acute nausea scores, delayed nausea scores, number of vomiting events, or vomiting scores between the ginger group and the control group using antiemetic drugs or placebo. However, ginger demonstrated a favorable safety profile in terms of adverse effects. Conclusion:: Ginger appears to be safe for BC patients; however, its inhibitory effect on CINV remains inconclusive. Due to the limited number of available studies, accurate conclusions regarding the effectiveness of ginger in managing CINV in BC patients cannot be drawn. More rigorously designed, large-sample, high-quality randomized controlled trials are needed to validate the specific effects of ginger in this patient population.
SN - 0304-5412
SN - 1536-5964
SN - 0025-7974
ER -