Effectiveness of qigong and Tai Chi for quality of life in patients with cancer: an umbrella review and meta-analysis

Background

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.

Methods

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.

Results

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.

Conclusion

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.