The Use of Virtual Reality for the Management of Pain, Anxiety and Fatigue in Cancer Patients and Cancer Survivors, Opportunities and Benefits; a Systematic Narrative Review

Introduction and objective: Thanks to advances in treatment and early diagnosis for some cancers،the ۵-year relative survival rate for all cancers combined has increased. Survival is influenced by the type of cancer, stage and age of diagnosis. Therefore, the prevalence of cancer survivors is growing worldwide. This requires a variety of care methods to manage the chronic complications of cancer, especially pain, fatigue and anxiety. Treatments for the common complications of cancer survivors are pharmacological and non-pharmacological. Virtual reality (VR) has been introduced as a new form of non-pharmacological treatment to improve complications during chemotherapy or surgery and after cancer treatment. The present study aimed to review the progress of the last five years in the field of using virtual reality to improve some chronic symptoms including: pain, anxiety and fatigue and rehabilitation of cancer survivors.Method: A systematic review was performed on PubMed, Google Scholar and Scopus databases from ۲۰۱۷ to present day. We used similar search parameters for each database: Cancer OR cancer survivors OR cancer patient, Virtual Reality, pain OR anxiety OR fatigue OR cancer-related fatigue OR chronic pain, unrestricted to age, religion, race, and gender.Results: From ۷۵۶ retrieved citations, eight studies met inclusion criteria for review. Although methodological limitations, small sample sizes, year limitation, using VR during limited procedures, such as venous port access or chemotherapy and select limited types of cancers to study such as breast cancer in collected prevent the generalization of the results for serious therapeutic applications, significant Results in seven of the eight selected articles in the last five years demonstrate a great improvement in the near future for cancer-related pain, anxiety and fatigue.Conclusion: According to the results of existing studies, more studies are needed to prove the effective use of VR. Nevertheless, the development of technology allows us to expect the expansion of the use of VR, especially in the field of cancer treatment.

کلیدواژه ها:

Virtual reality ، Cancer survivors ، pain ، anxiety ، fatigue