Nurse-led telehealth interventions for symptom management in patients with cancer receiving systemic or radiation therapy: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Purpose Patients receiving cancer treatments experience many treatment-related symptoms. Telehealth is increasingly being used to support symptom management. The overall aim was to determine the effectiveness of nurse-led telehealth symptom management interventions for patients with cancer receiving systemic or radiation therapy compared to usual care on health service use, quality of life, and symptom severity. Methods A systematic review was conducted following the Cochrane Handbook and PRISMA reporting guidelines. Five electronic databases were searched. Two independent reviewers screened articles and extracted data. Meta-analysis was performed if data were clinically and methodologically homogeneous. Subanalysis was conducted on reactive and scheduled telehealth interventions. Results Of 7749 citations screened, 10 studies were included (8 randomized control trials, 2 quasi-experimental). Five were reactive telehealth interventions with patient-initiated contact and five evaluated scheduled telehealth interventions initiated by nurses. Compared to usual care (typically patient-initiated calls), nurse-led telehealth interventions for symptom management showed no statistically significant difference in hospitalizations, emergency department visits, or unscheduled clinic visits. Two of three studies of reactive telehealth interventions showed improved quality of life. All telehealth interventions showed reduction in the severity of most symptoms. Pain severity was significantly reduced (standard mean difference - 0.54; 95% CI - 0.88, - 0.19). Significant heterogeneity prevented meta-analysis for most outcomes. Conclusion Few studies evaluated nurse-led telehealth interventions for cancer symptom management. Compared to usual care, patients exposed to telehealth interventions had reduced symptom severity and no difference in health services use. Future research should focus on better reporting intervention characteristics and consistently measuring outcomes.