Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Aug 22;6(1):vdae134.
doi: 10.1093/noajnl/vdae134. eCollection 2024 Jan-Dec.

Landscape and impact of mind-body, cognitive-behavioral, and physical activity interventions in adolescent and adult brain tumor patients: A systematic review

Affiliations

Landscape and impact of mind-body, cognitive-behavioral, and physical activity interventions in adolescent and adult brain tumor patients: A systematic review

Alex R Wollet et al. Neurooncol Adv. .

Abstract

Background: The use of mind-body, cognitive-behavioral, and physical activity interventions have shown efficacy for improving symptom burden and functional limitations in other cancers; however, these strategies have not been widely implemented within neuro-oncology. This systematic review describes the current landscape and the impact of these interventions on adolescent and adult patients with brain tumors, which may guide the development of future interventions.

Methods: A systematic search of PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science was performed using preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines with predefined eligibility criteria. Twenty-nine studies met the inclusion criteria and were selected for review.

Results: There was promising evidence for the feasibility and efficacy of mind-body and physical activity interventions for improving mood and quality of life, as well as enhanced physical functioning following aerobic and strength-based interventions. Results were mixed for cognitive-behavioral interventions, likely due to underpowered analyses. Interventions tested in pediatric patients also showed improvements in fatigue, mood, and quality of life, though these individuals represented a small proportion of the pooled sample.

Conclusions: Findings suggest that mind-body and physical activity interventions can improve both physical and psychological health for patients with brain tumors, though additional well-designed clinical trials are needed to better establish efficacy.

Keywords: cognitive-behavioral; mind-body; neuro-oncology; physical activity; quality of life; symptoms.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
PRISMA flow diagram. A systematic search of 3 databases yielded 629 articles, which was reduced to 20 articles included in the review following duplicate removal and screening for eligibility. An additional 9 studies were identified with the snowballing method from the reference lists of included articles, which yielded a final sample of 29 papers included for systematic review.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Geographical distribution of included studies. This figure demonstrates the geographical distribution of studies included in this review, including the world region and country. North America had the highest number of studies (12), followed by Europe (9), Australasia (4), East Asia (3), and South America (1). The number of studies from each country is notated in parentheses.

References

    1. Armstrong TS, Vera-Bolanos E, Acquaye AA, et al.. The symptom burden of primary brain tumors: Evidence for a core set of tumor-and treatment-related symptoms. Neuro-Oncology. 2015;18(2):252–260. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rogers JL, Vera E, Acquaye A, et al.. Living with a central nervous system (CNS) tumor: Findings on long-term survivorship from the NIH Natural History Study. Neurooncol Pract. 2021;8(4):460–474. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Leeper H, Milbury K.. Survivorship care planning and implementation in neuro-oncology. Neuro-Oncology. 2018;20(suppl_7):vii40–vii46. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Armstrong TS, Dirven L, Arons D, et al.. Glioma patient-reported outcome assessment in clinical care and research: A Response Assessment in Neuro-Oncology collaborative report. Lancet Oncol. 2020;21(2):e97–e103. - PubMed
    1. Armstrong T. See brain cancer as more than just the sum of biology. Nature. 2018;561(7724):S45–S45. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources