Effectiveness of immersive virtual reality on anxiety, fatigue and pain in patients with cancer undergoing chemotherapy: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Purpose This Systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to assess the effectiveness of Virtual Reality on anxiety, fatigue and pain in patients with cancer during chemotherapy and provide evidence for decision-making in clinical practice. Methods A systematic literature search was performed in the databases PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature and the Cochrane Library. Risk of Bias was used to assess the quality of individual studies, and Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation was used to assess confidence for each individual outcome. A random-effects model was used to examine the overall effect. Results Four randomized controlled trials and four crossover studies were included, with an overall sample of 459 patients. Results showed that Virtual Reality compared with standard care had a significant reduction of anxiety only (MD = −6.57, 95% CI: −11.59 to −1.54, p = 0.01) but with considerable heterogeneity (I2 = 92%), while Virtual Reality was not significantly different from integrative interventions. The trials included showed small sample sizes, lack of statistical power, low methodological quality, high heterogeneity, and different Virtual Reality technology types, lengths and frequencies. Conclusion The quality of evidence is very low and the strength of recommendation is weak. Further research has large potential for reducing uncertainty about the effects of Virtual Reality in patients with cancer receiving chemotherapy. This study was registered with PROSPERO as CRD42020223375.