The Effects of Exercise on Symptoms of Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy in Cancer Survivors: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Problem identification: Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) can cause treatment delays or discontinuation. Exercise can improve CIPN, but the effects have been inconsistent.

Literature search: 12 databases and 5 websites were searched from database inception to December 22, 2023, for primary studies that were reported in English and examined the effects of exercise on CIPN in cancer survivors.

Data evaluation: 20 studies (N = 1,308 total participants) were identified and reviewed.

Synthesis: Using a random-effects model, exercise slightly improved symptoms of CIPN (Hedges's g = 0.28, Hartung-Knapp adjusted 95% confidence interval [0.12, 0.45], p = 0.002). The 95% prediction interval showed that the true effect size of future studies would likely range from -0.1 to 0.66. Frequency of performing exercise moderated the effect size, further improving symptoms.

Implications for nursing: Nurses can encourage cancer survivors to engage in exercise, such as resistance training, aerobic exercise, balance training, and/or yoga. Nurses can refer cancer survivors to trained exercise specialists or provide information about finding a community exercise program for patients with cancer.