Objective: We plan to review all published systematic reviews (SRs) and meta-analyses (MAs) of exercise or sport activities for patients with cancer. The aim of this study is to combine and reanalyze related data and to provide more comprehensive and higher-level evidence.
Methods: We plan to search four English databases and four Chinese databases from inception to June 2019. Patients who were treated by all of exercise or sport activities such as running, gymnastics, taichi, and qigong, will be included. The following information will be extracted from each included SR: first author, year of publication, country of origin, number of primary study; the number of patients enrolled, participant characteristics, duration of cancer diagnosis, cancer types. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) and A Measurements Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews 2 (AMSTAR-2) will be used to assess the reporting and methodological quality of SRs/MAs. The characteristics of included SRs/MAs and their quality will be descriptively summarized using systematically structured tables. The network MA approach and narrative synthesis will be used to examine data when applicable. Odds ratio and (standardized) mean difference with their 95% confidence intervals will be used as summary statistics. Stata 13.0 software will be used to analyze and pool data.
Results: The results of the overview will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal for publication.
Ethics and dissemination: The study is not a clinical study, and we will search and evaluate existing sources of literature. So, ethical approval is not required.