Electro-acupuncture for health-related quality of life and symptoms in patients with gastric cancer undergoing adjuvant chemotherapy (EAGER): a protocol for a multicenter randomized controlled trial

Table 1 Measurements to be taken at each point in the trial

Period		Screening	1st cycle	2nd cycle	3rd cycle	4-6th cycle
Timeline		D-21-0	D1-21	D1-21	D1-21	4-6th cycle
Enrolment		×
Activity
MPHTJP test^a		×
conventional treatment			×	×	×	×
Acupuncture(LA/HA group^b)			×	×	×
Compensatory acupuncture (Control group)						×
Assessment
HRQOL^c	FACT-Ga^d		×	×	×
Symptoms	mESAS^e		×	×	×
AEs/SAEs^f	NCI-CTCAE^g V4.0		×	×	×
Blood test indexes	MDSCs^h	×			×
	Tregsⁱ
	CTC^j

^aMPHTJP test: Measuring pain heat threshold of Jing point and presented in the online supplementary appendix
^bLA/HA group: Low dose acupuncture/High dose acupuncture group
^cHRQOL: Health-related quality of life
^dFACT-Ga: Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy – Gastric scale
^emESAS: Modified Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale
^fAEs/SAEs: Adverse events/Severe adverse events
^gNCI-CTCAE: National cancer institute common terminology criteria for adverse events
^hMDSCs: Myeloid-derived suppressor cells
ⁱTregs: Treg cells
^jCTC: Circulating tumor cells

ISSN: 1477-7525