SynthesisResearch in nursing & health2026
The Effectiveness of Interventions Based on Symptom Clusters for Symptom Burden and Quality of Life Among Cancer Patients: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.
Synthesis in Research in nursing & health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper, 1 of them a synthesis 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
1 citing paper in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The Effectiveness of Interventions Based on Symptom Clusters for Symptom Burden and Quality of Life Among Cancer Patients: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Research in nursing & health · 2026Pooled it
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
Abstract
Cancer patients suffer severe physical-psychological symptoms presenting as "symptom clusters," causing heavy symptom burden and poor quality of life. Researchers have studied symptom clusters, but whether they could improve symptom burden and quality of life for cancer patients is unclear. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions based on symptom clusters for symptom burden of different types of clusters and quality of life among cancer patients. A systematic search was performed across six databases from inception to 17 December 2024. The revised Cochrane risk of bias tool was used to check the methodological quality. Data analysis was performed in RStudio, and the intervention effects were explored through a random or fixed effects model. Sensitivity analysis was also performed to evaluate the robustness of the results. We ultimately included nine randomized controlled trials that met the criteria, which were published from 2012 to 2024 and had 998 participants. The results suggested that interventions based on symptom clusters improved symptom burden of mixed symptom clusters (SMD = -0.25, 95% CI [-0.47, -0.04]) and quality of life (SMD = 0.38, 95% CI [0.12, 0.65]), while the relief in symptom burden of physical (SMD = -1.54, 95% CI [-3.34, 0.27]), psychological (SMD = -3.29, 95% CI [-8.09, 1.50]) and gastrointestinal (SMD = -2.24, 95% CI [-4.99, 0.52]) symptom clusters was not significant. To conclude, interventions based on symptom clusters are deemed crucial for improving symptom burden and quality of life among cancer patients. In the future, professionals could tailor interventions considering intervention components and individualized characteristics to further benefit cancer patients. Trial and Protocol Registration: Name: International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews Number: CRD42023474527.Website link: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/#recordDetails.
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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 OpenQuestion graph.