Review of systematic reviews of non-pharmacological interventions to improve quality of life in cancer survivors

Abstract

ObjectivesOver two million people in the UK are living with and beyond cancer. A third report diminished quality of life.DesignA review of published systematic reviews to identify effective non-pharmacological interventions to improve the quality of life of cancer survivors.Data sourcesDatabases searched until May 2017 included PubMed, Cochrane Central, EMBASE, MEDLINE, Web of Science, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and PsycINFO.Study selectionPublished systematic reviews of randomised trials of non-pharmacological interventions for people living with and beyond cancer were included; included reviews targeted patients aged over 18. All participants had already received a cancer diagnosis. Interventions located in any healthcare setting, home or online were included. Reviews of alternative therapies or those non-English reports were excluded. Two researchers independently assessed titles, abstracts and the full text of papers, and independently extracted the data.OutcomesThe primary outcome of interest was any measure of global (overall) quality of life.Analytical methodsQuality assessment assessing methdological quality of systematic reviews (AMSTAR) and narrative synthesis, evaluating effectiveness of non-pharmacological interventions and their components.ResultsOf 14 430 unique titles, 21 were included in the review of reviews. There was little overlap in the primary papers across these reviews. Thirteen reviews covered mixed tumour groups, seven focused on breast cancer and one focused on prostate cancer. Face-to-face interventions were often combined with online, telephone and paper-based reading materials. Interventions included physical, psychological or behavioural, multidimensional rehabilitation and online approaches. Yoga specifically, physical exercise more generally, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) programmes showed benefit in terms of quality of life.ConclusionsExercise-based interventions were effective in the short (less than 3–8 months) and long term. CBT and MBSR also showed benefits, especially in the short term. The evidence for multidisciplinary, online and educational interventions was equivocal.

Meta-Analysis of the Effects of the Educational and Counseling Interventions on Mental Adjustment and Quality of Life in Breast Cancer

“…While, the educational and information provision interventions were ineffective on the on QoL (Myrhaug et al, 2018). Similar results were reported by Duncan et al (2017). They reported International Journal of Public Health andClinical Sciences e-ISSN : 2289-7577.…”

“…Open Access: e-Journal that the results educational interventions were equivocal, while the CBT, MBSR and exercise-based interventions were significantly effects on the QoL (Duncan et al, 2017).…”

Von der onkologischen Reha-Klinik an den Wohnort – Schnittstellenanalyse unter Berücksichtigung der Bewegungsangebote

“…Die wissenschaftliche Datenlage zeigt also, dass gezielte körperliche Aktivität positive Effekte auf krankheits-und therapiebedingte Nebenwirkungen [3,4], das relative Mortalitätsrisiko [5] und die Lebensqualität während und nach der medizinischen Behandlung haben kann [6,7]. Gezielte körperliche Aktivität müsse v. a. supervidiert in den Alltag integriert werden.…”

Das Potential von Mind Body Medicine in der Onkologie

“…Die Übersichtsarbeit von Duncan et al [20] gibt einen guten Überblick über die Evidenz zu nicht-pharmakologischen Interventionen zur Verbesserung der Lebensqualität von Cancer-Survivors.…”