To the Editor He and colleagues1 performed a well-conducted systematic review and meta-analysis on the effectiveness of acupuncture and acupressure for cancer pain. However, we would like to raise some questions concerning this research.
First, the systematic review is different from other types of reviews, which should definitely provide precise and reliable methodology through systematically searching and identifying all eligible research according to inclusion and exclusion criteria.2 Thus, improvement should be made on the searching methods of this review. Despite using keywords in 3 English-language databases, the authors did not use Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms in the search. Notably, the combined application of subject headings and key words is of great significance in searching for relevant studies in accordance with Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions.2