Combined exercise on fatigue, quality of life and physical functioning in people under chemotherapy with oxaliplatin: Systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: To investigate the effects of combined exercise on fatigue, anxiety, depression, quality of life and physical functioning in gastroinstestinal neoplasm in people under chemotherapy with oxaliplatin treatment. Methods: We searched pubmed/MEDLINE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, PEDro data base, and SciELO (until Nov 2023) for randomized controlled trials that investigated the effects of combined exercise in gastroinstestinal neoplasm people under chemotherapy with oxaliplatin treatment. Two comparisons were made: combined exercise versus usual care, combined aerobic and versus usual care (follow up). The main outcomes were muscle strength, aerobic capacity, fatigue, anxiety, depression and quality of life. Mean differences (MD) with 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated. Results: Seven randomized controlled trials met the eligibility criteria, which included 464 people. Compared to usual care, combined aerobic and resistance resulted in decrease of general fatigue (-2.82; IC: 4.92 to -0.69, N = 48), physical fatigue (-5.08; IC: 8.41 to -1.74, N = 48) and improvement of domain physical functioning of quality of life (9.40; IC: 2.74 to 16.06, N = 48). Compared to usual care, combined aerobic and resistance - Follow up resulted in decrease of general fatigue (-2.32; IC: 4.41 to - 0.28, N = 48), physical fatigue (-0.92; IC: 3.31 to -1.47, N = 48) and improvement ofdomain physical functioning of (9.83; IC: 0.66 to 19.01, N = 48). Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that combined exercises improves fatigue (general; physical), domain physical functioning of quality of life in gastrointestinal neoplasm people under chemotherapy treatment when compared to usual care.