PURPOSE: This review aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of exercise on chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN). METHODS: The medical databases PubMed, Embase, and CINAHL, and several Korean databases were searched until December 2020. Additionally, a manual search was conducted. The risk of bias was assessed using the revised Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for randomized trials. The Review Manager 5.3 version of the Cochrane Library was used to estimate effect size through meta-analysis. RESULTS: Nine studies were included. The most common types of exercise reported were yoga, combined aerobics and strength exercise, and combined strength and balance exercise; each was backed by two studies. Four randomized controlled trials were meta-analyzed, and five studies were synthesized qualitatively. A significant effect on CIPN was found using meta-analysis (standardized mean difference -0.28, 95% confidence interval -0.47 to -0.09, p = 0.004). As a result of qualitative synthesis, groups that did exercises were reported to have significantly lessened CIPN symptoms than control groups in three studies. In one study, the exercise group showed significant reduction in CIPN symptoms. And in another, the exercise group was more relieved of CIPN symptoms than the control group, although the difference was not significant. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that exercise should be part of the regimen for patients who are receiving or have completed neurotoxic chemotherapy, for relieving CIPN symptoms. However, these results should be interpreted cautiously, especially due to the limited number of studies and the small number of participants. Therefore, further well-designed studies with sufficient numbers of participants are required.

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