Role of methylphenidate in cancer-related fatigue: A Systemic Review

Abstract

Introduction: Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is a substantial medical issue that affects patients at all phases of their therapy and escalates with advanced cancer. To gather indications for the use of methylphenidate is objective of the study for the treatment of CRF, as well as to analyse the efficiency and safety of methylphenidate for the treatment of CRF so that we can tailor methylphenidate treatment to response patient only. Methods: To conduct the review of RCTs Systematic Reviews (PRISMA) statement was ideally chosen for Reporting Items. From inception through the first week of October 2021, A systematic search of the electronic databases PubMed, Embase, PSYCHInfo, and the Cochrane Library was done without any language restrictions. This helped to find all RCTs about the use of methylphenidate in patients with CRF. Search terms used were: methylphenidate, dexmethylphenidate, Ritalin, cancer, tumor, carcinoma, neoplasm, fatigue, asthenia, tiredness, CRF, and RCT. We also looked over a few journals' references to find more theoretically related papers. Results: A total of 267 citations were screened; among them, after a preliminary review 231 were excluded. 36 full-text articles assessed for eligibility; among them, 10 articles were met the inclusion criteria where all the selected articles were of good quality. Among 10 studies, 5 were identified in mixed tumor, 2 in prostate cancer, 1 in GI cancer, 1 in advanced cancer and 1 in Gynaecologic cancer. The characteristics of the studies changed broadly in terms of the treatment term and the population studied. Conclusion: To summarize up this study, cancer-related weakness could be critical clinical issue for cancer patients. Our findings suggest that methylphenidate may be useful in the treatment of CRF, but the evidence is inconclusive and has to be confirmed in a bigger study. All of the investigations, however, had tiny sample sizes. This counsel must be respected as provisional and temporary within the absence of considerable information from a single, expansive, well conducted randomized controlled trial. To support and propose new research topics and interventions, more study into biological factors affecting weariness is required.