ReviewJournal of cancer survivorship : research and practice2025
The effects of VR/AR/MR-based interventions on symptom management among adult cancer survivors receiving active treatments: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Review in Journal of cancer survivorship : research and practice, 2025. 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.
- A scoping review of virtual reality technology utilization in patients with colorectal cancer.BMC nursing · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeVirtual Reality (VR)-based interventions emerge as promising tools for symptom management among cancer survivors receiving active treatments. Evidence from previous systematic reviews and meta-analyses is limited by small numbers of studies and lack of sub-group analyses. The purpose of this review was to evaluate the effectiveness of VR/AR/MR interventions on symptom management for cancer survivors receiving active treatments.
methodsFive electronic databases were searched up to March 2025. A meta-analysis was conducted. Sub-group analyses for age, treatment type, cancer type, VR type (immersive or non-immersive), lengths of interventions, scene type, and interaction methods were evaluated.
resultsTwenty-seven unique randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were included. In total, 62 effect sizes for eight symptom outcomes, including fatigue, pain, anxiety, depression, nausea, distress, confusion, and dyspnea, were computed. Meta-analyses showed that the effects of VR interventions were significant on fatigue (n = 12, SMD-0.9494 [- 1.5083, -0.3904]), pain (n = 13, SMD-0.7426 [-1.2694, -0.2158]), and anxiety (n = 16, SMD-1.8063 [-3.0549, -0.5576]). In our sensitivity test, the effect of VR on depression was also significant (n = 8, SMD-0.3682 [-0.5774, -0.1589]). No significant effect was found for outcomes of nausea, distress, confusion, and dyspnea.
conclusionsVR interventions showed efficacy in decreasing fatigue, pain, and anxiety among individuals with cancer receiving active treatment. IMPLICATIONS FOR CANCER SURVIVORS: As the VR interventions demonstrated differential effects across subgroups defined by age, cancer type, treatment type, and their unique VR features, tailored intervention designs are needed to address the specific needs of each patient group.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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Registered trials
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