SynthesisFrontiers in public health2023
Virtual reality in chemotherapy support for the treatment of physical functions, fear, and quality of life in pediatric cancer patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Frontiers in public health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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
21 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Effectiveness of exergaming interventions for adults with cancer: a systematic review.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Pooled it
- Effectiveness of Virtual Reality Interventions for Perioperative Anxiety in Adults: A Systemic Review With Meta-Analysis.Journal of clinical nursing · 2025Pooled it
- Extended Reality Interventions for Health and Procedural Anxiety: Panoramic Meta-Analysis Based on Overviews of Reviews.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Pooled it
- Virtual reality for the management of musculoskeletal pain: an umbrella review.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Pain and anxiety management with virtual reality for office hysteroscopy: systemic review and meta-analysis.Archives of gynecology and obstetrics · 2024Pooled it
- Personalized virtual reality in hemodialysis patients: a multicenter pilot study.Clinical kidney journal · 2026Article
- Exploring healthcare providers' perceptions of virtual reality in lung cancer treatment preparedness: a mixed-methods feasibility study for the development of EveryBreathMatters.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Identifying Key Factors in Adherence and Dropouts in Active Physiotherapy in Children with Acute Leukemia: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis and Meta-Regression.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Review
- Factors Influencing Virtual Reality as a Distraction Tool for Venipuncture in Children: Observational Pilot Feasibility Study.JMIR serious games · 2025Article
- Review
- The effect of calcium oxalate stones and uric acid stones on male sexual function.International urology and nephrology · 2025Article
- The role of satisfaction with care among factors affecting health-related quality of life in people with cancer: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Article
- Parental Voices on Virtual Reality in Pediatric Oncology: Experiences, Needs, and Pathways for Co-Design.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2025Article
- Extended Reality Analgesia Evidence Reviews Often Lack Sufficient Intervention Detail.Journal of medical extended reality · 2024Article
- Virtual Reality to Improve the Psychological and Physical Well-Being in Cancer Patients: An Umbrella Review.Cancers · 2024Review
- Pain Management in Cancer Patients: The Effectiveness of Digital Game-based Interventions: A Rapid Literature Review.Healthcare informatics research · 2024Article
- Virtual reality-based supportive care interventions for patients with cancer: an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2024Review
- Cyborg Children: A Systematic Literature Review on the Experience of Children Using Extended Reality.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- The Usefulness of Virtual Reality in Symptom Management during Chemotherapy in Lung Cancer Patients: A Quasi-Experimental Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Appropriately selected complementary therapies, such as virtual reality (VR) and active video games (AVG), provide support to young patients during the process of cancer treatment. Therefore, this systematic review with meta-analysis aimed to analyze the effects of VR and AVG on fear, physical functions, and quality of life. Methods: A systematic search was performed independently in Scopus, PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and Cochrane Library electronic databases for relevant randomized controlled and crossover studies. From a total of 5,963 records, 11 met the inclusion criteria. After full-text screening two publications were excluded, yet six studies were included in the quantitative analysis because three studies had a large discrepancy in their measured outcomes. For methodological quality assessments, the RoB2 software program was used, while RevMan 5.4.1 was used for statistical analysis and meta-analysis. Standard Mean Difference (SMD) outcome measures were used for the analysis. Statistical heterogeneity was assessed using the I2 statistic with a cut-off value of 50% considering intervention and outcome measures. Results: Our systematic review includes six randomized controlled studies and three randomized crossover studies. The participants represented both sexes and were children and adolescents (<18 years old) with a diagnosis of cancer. The analysis of the results allows for a careful conclusion that VR has the potential to become an accessory tool in rehabilitation and oncologic treatment. All of the included studies noted a significant advantage of this intervention. Conclusion: VR has the potential to be an effective and important tool in the oncologic treatment of children. VR immerses the patient, and as a result, produces a distraction that effectively reduces pain associated with standard oncologic care procedures in children. However, this systematic review and meta-analysis highlights the need for more research into the use of VR as support for pediatric oncologic care. Systematic review registration: PROSPERO database (https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=319000), CRD42022319000.
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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 OpenQuestion graph.