Effectiveness of virtual reality in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Systematic review

Abstract

Virtual reality is on the rise and is currently postulated as one of the most innovative and promising techniques in the management of pain and anxiety in cancer patients, in the face of painful processes or the stress involved in chemotherapy treatment. The objective has been to find out the effectiveness of virtual reality in patients undergoing chemotherapy. Several literature reviews were conducted between November 2023 and January 2024 in the Pubmed, Web of Science and PEDro databases. The keywords "virtual reality," "cancer," "oncology," "exercise" and "chemotherapy" were combined using the Boolean operator AND. 641 manuscripts were selected as potential manuscripts and after elimination of duplicates and application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria, six articles comprised the final review sample. Virtual reality has proven to be an effective technique in reducing the anxiety, pain, asthenia and stress suffered by patients diagnosed with cancer and chemotherapy treatment. The distraction generated by this therapeutic modality, with a wide range of scenarios, helps to reduce the painful perception and worry of these procedures. However, there are no standard application guidelines or application protocols that demonstrate the superiority of one technique over another. Virtual reality could be a valid complementary tool in the treatment of patients undergoing chemotherapy, showing positive results in pain reduction, anxiety, stress or asthenia. More studies are needed, with larger sample sizes and long-term follow-ups to establish treatment protocols in relation to the frequency, intensity, duration and periodicity of interventions with virtual reality.

Keywords: anxiety; chemotherapy; oncology; pain; virtual reality.

FIGURE 1

PRISMA flowchart of item selection.