Xu Jing, Li Hong, Sze Daniel Man-Yuen, Chan Vincent Wan Shing, Yang Angela Wei Hong
School of Health and Biomedical Sciences, STEM College, RMIT University, Bundoora, VIC, 3083, Australia.
School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, Guangdong, China.
BMC Complement Med Ther. 2025 Apr 16;25(1):141. doi: 10.1186/s12906-025-04875-1.
Qigong and Tai Chi (QTC) have been adopted by cancer patients as the complementary treatment to their conventional care. This umbrella review aimed to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of QTC in cancer patients' quality of life (QoL) and its safety.
Twenty-five databases were searched from their respective inception to March 2025. Systematic reviews (SRs) and meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing cancer patients' QoL after practicing QTC were included. The search strategy included Qigong, Tai Chi, quality of life, cancer, systematic review, and meta analysis. The extracted data was analyzed using standardized mean difference, mean difference, or odds ratio with 95% confidence intervals.
Nine SRs were included in the qualitative analysis, and six of the SRs were included for the meta-analyses. Results showed that QTC may improve cancer patients' overall QoL, physiological scores (physical functioning, fatigue, and sleep quality), psychological scores (mental health and anxiety), and immunity, compared to the control groups. However, meta-analyses did not demonstrate significant differences in subgroup analyses of depression, although it showed that QTC may reduce depression in cancer patients. No serious adverse events of QTC were reported.
QTC can be considered a safe intervention method for improving QoL in patients with cancer. Due to substantial heterogeneity, more rigorously-designed RCTs on QTC for cancer patients should be conducted, focusing on standardizing QTC practices and QoL instruments to assess QTC effects.
CRD42021253216.
气功和太极拳（QTC）已被癌症患者用作传统治疗的补充疗法。本伞状综述旨在评估QTC对癌症患者生活质量（QoL）的临床疗效及其安全性。
检索了25个数据库，检索时间从各数据库建立至2025年3月。纳入评估QTC练习后癌症患者QoL的随机对照试验（RCT）的系统评价（SRs）和荟萃分析。检索策略包括气功、太极拳、生活质量、癌症、系统评价和荟萃分析。使用标准化均数差、均数差或比值比及95%置信区间对提取的数据进行分析。
9项SRs纳入定性分析，其中6项SRs纳入荟萃分析。结果显示与对照组相比，QTC可能改善癌症患者的总体QoL、生理评分（身体功能、疲劳和睡眠质量）、心理评分（心理健康和焦虑）及免疫力。然而，荟萃分析在抑郁亚组分析中未显示出显著差异，尽管其表明QTC可能减轻癌症患者的抑郁。未报告QTC的严重不良事件。
QTC可被视为改善癌症患者QoL的一种安全干预方法。由于存在实质性异质性，应开展更严格设计的针对癌症患者的QTC RCTs，重点是规范QTC练习和QoL评估工具以评估QTC效果。
PROSPERO注册号：CRD42021253216。
