SynthesisBritish journal of sports medicine2026
Grading the evidence on the effects of exercise interventions in children and adolescents during and beyond cancer treatment: an umbrella review of systematic reviews with meta-analyses.
Synthesis in British journal of sports medicine, 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
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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.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Gait and Functional Movement Quality Improvements Following an Individualized Exercise Program in Pediatric Hemato-Oncological Patients.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo synthesise the evidence on the effects of exercise interventions in children and adolescents during and beyond cancer treatment, and to evaluate the methodological quality and certainty of this evidence.
designUmbrella review of systematic reviews with meta-analyses. DATA SOURCE: PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, SPORTDiscus and CINAHL were searched from inception to January 2026. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR SELECTING STUDIES: Systematic reviews with meta-analysis of controlled trials (randomised or non-randomised) evaluating exercise interventions in children and adolescents (≤19 years) during and beyond cancer treatment. Reviews without quantitative synthesis, those including only observational studies, or interventions where the isolated effect of exercise could not be determined were excluded.
results19 systematic reviews with meta-analyses, including 53 primary studies (n=2361 participants), were identified, yielding 80 effect estimates. Attending to the most comprehensive meta-analyses, exercise induced significant benefits on cardiorespiratory fitness (mean difference (MD) 6.92% (95% CI 1.01% to 12.82%)), cognitive function (standardised mean difference (SMD) 0.26 (95% CI 0.08 to 0.44)) and cognitive performance (SMD 0.41 (95% CI 0.17 to 0.65)), with moderate certainty of evidence. Exercise also induced significant benefits on muscle strength (SMD 0.81 (95% CI 0.05 to 1.57)), functional mobility (MD -1.17 s (95% CI -1.86 to -0.49)) and cancer-related fatigue (SMD -0.62 (95% CI -1.21 to -0.03)), although the certainty was low or very low. These effects were observed across meta-analyses focused exclusively on studies conducted during treatment (n=26), after treatment (n=3) or both (n=51). In contrast, no significant effects of exercise were observed for depression, bone mineral density, health-related quality of life, anthropometry or other clinical outcomes (such as mortality, relapse risk and withdrawal rates).
conclusionExercise appears to be a beneficial intervention in childhood cancer for improving some physical, cognitive and psychosocial outcomes. However, more high-quality research is warranted to strengthen clinical recommendations and inform personalised exercise prescriptions, given that the certainty of evidence remains variable and overall low across outcomes. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD420251031412.
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