ReviewIntegrative medicine research2026
Exploring traditional Chinese medicine tongue diagnosis in potential cancer identification: A scoping review.
Review in Integrative medicine research, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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
1 citing paper in PubMed.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) tongue diagnosis entails the systematic evaluation of morphological characteristics (tongue features) on both dorsal and ventral tongue surfaces. Recent advancements in research have highlighted the potential diagnostic relevance of specific tongue features for cancer detection and monitoring through various inspection methodologies. This scoping review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of tongue features investigated in relation to cancer detection. Methods: A literature search for clinical studies (excluding case reports) that examined the application of tongue inspection for detecting cancer, recurrence, or metastasis was conducted. Extracted data included study characteristics, patient populations, inspection techniques, and diagnostic outcomes. Results: Twenty-four studies consisting of 14 case-control studies, 4 cross sectional studies, 5 observational study, and 1 prospective multicentred cohort were identified, involving a total of 5458 cancer patients and 7880 control participants. Documented tongue features included lingual flange protrusion, sublingual nodules, engorged sublingual veins, purple-bluish tongue, and variations in tongue coating thickness, etc. that were associated with different cancer types and metastasis. Using QUADAS-2, the overall quality was low with potentially high risk of bias in some key domains, especially participant selection and index test. Conclusion: The findings from this review provide a foundation for future research questions aimed at high-level observational studies. Tongue inspection holds promise as a cost-effective, time-efficient, and non-invasive method for detecting cancers and metastasis. Based on quality assessment, the study highlights future needs such as more prospective, blinded interpretation, pre-specified thresholds, and transparent reporting to improve both methodological rigor and external validity.
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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 Socratic graph.