The unmet rehabilitation needs of colorectal cancer survivors after surgery: A qualitative meta-synthesis.

The synthesis reports experiences and needs, not whether interventions work. Only English-language qualitative studies were included, and the authors note most included studies were from Europe, so findings may not apply to other languages or regions. Some original studies had Joanna Briggs Institute checklist items rated no, so methodological quality was not uniform. The included studies used different countries, settings, interview methods and sample sizes, so the themes are broad. The Discussion gives recommendations, but those are authors' suggestions, not tested findings.

The authors declared no competing interests. Funding came from a Hubei Province Colleges and Universities Outstanding Young and Middle aged Scientific and Technological Innovation Team Program, a Jingmen City Key Science and Technology Plan Project, and a Jingchu University of Technology Joint Training Graduate Research Special Fund Project.

Do not read these themes as evidence that diet, exercise, stoma, or return-to-work interventions improve outcomes. The paper synthesises survivors' reported unmet needs from qualitative studies; it did not test an intervention or measure clinical outcomes.