Effectiveness of physical therapy techniques for cancer-related pain: a systematic review.
Iser Alejandro González-Ramírez, Xavier Oswaldo Molina-López, Leonardo Enrique Bermeo-Gualán and 3 others
PMID 41705068WHAT IT FOUND
Physical therapy interventions like electroacupuncture and structured exercise reduced pain and neuropathy symptoms in cancer patients, but results were inconsistent across trials.
Evidence is low certainty and applies mainly to chemotherapy-induced neuropathy, not all cancer pain.
Key findings
01Pain intensity decreased significantly in studies applying transcutaneous electrical stimulation or electroacupuncture, though one trial found no difference compared to placebo.
02Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy symptoms improved with structured exercise or compressive therapy, with greater effects seen when these were combined.
03The overall certainty of evidence for exercise, electro-physical agents, and multimodal interventions was judged to be low.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The evidence is largely concentrated on chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy and cannot be generalized to other types of cancer pain, such as nociceptive or bone metastasis pain. There was notable methodological heterogeneity in the types of interventions, frequencies, durations, and outcome measures, preventing a quantitative meta-analysis. Sample sizes in several included studies were small, which may have limited statistical power. The overall certainty of evidence was rated as low due to methodological limitations and inconsistent effects across trials. Most studies evaluated short-term effects, so the long-term sustainability of clinical benefits is unknown.
Declared interests
The authors declared that financial support was not received for this work.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume these findings apply to all cancer-related pain. The evidence is specific to chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy and is of low certainty, with inconsistent results across trials.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →