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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Pain Res.
Sec. Non-Pharmacological Treatment of Pain
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpain.2025.1447075
Assessment of nonpharmacologicalnon-pharmacological nursing strategies for pain management in tumor patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Provisionally accepted- Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China
background: Cancer is a multifactorial disease associated with intense pain and fatigue. Pain is the main discomfort experienced during cancer treatment, particularly as a major side effect of chemotherapy.Objective: This study has aimed to investigate the effectiveness of non-pharmacological nursing strategies, including reflexology, aromatherapy, acupressure, massage therapy and acupuncture, in the management of cancer-associated pain. Moreover, it provides evidence-based recommendations for integrating these interventions into standard pain management protocols.We gathered data from three major online databases; PubMed, the Cochrane Library and Embase. For the analysis, we exclusively targeted randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing the effectiveness of non-pharmacological interventions in managing cancer-related pain. No language restrictions were applied, and pain was considered the primary outcome measure.Results: Seventeen RCTs (n = 1070) were included in this meta-analysis from 166 eligible studies. The pooled effect size demonstrated that all evaluated non-pharmacological nursing strategies, including aromatherapy, massage, reflexology, acupressure and acupuncture significantly reduced cancer-related pain compared to usual care (p < 0.001). Moreover, the reflexology and massage showed negligible heterogeneity among other interventions.This meta-analysis found the significant effectiveness of non-pharmacological nursing strategies, particularly reflexology and massage in reducing cancer-related pain. The findings support their integration into clinical practice, providing evidence-based recommendations for enhancing standard pain management protocols.
Keywords: Aromatherapy, Massage, Cancer-related pain, Reflexology, Acupuncture, Acupressure
Received: 20 Jun 2024; Accepted: 31 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yan, Yan, Liangyu and Fei. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xu Fei, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.