Is there a role for physical activity when treating patients with cancer with immune checkpoint inhibitors? Protocol...

For patients with cancer, immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) produce superior long-term responses compared with alternative treatments, although at the cost of manifesting adverse immune-related events. There are many hypotheses of the impacts of physical activities in immunotherapy, but little is known about the oncological outcomes and the underlying mechanisms. This scoping review aims to identify possible physical activity interventions, their efficacy and feasibility and the potential underlying biological mechanisms responsible for their effects.

The Levac methodology framework was used along with guidance from the Joanna Briggs Institute Manual for Evidence Synthesis to inform development of this protocol. Abstracts and titles followed by full-text screening will be performed by two independent reviewers for inclusion. All studies describing the impact of physical activities and exercise interventions on cancer ICIs, with particular focus on oncological outcomes, quality of life or underling biological mechanisms, will be included. After extracting qualitative and quantitative data, they will be evaluated and summarised, respectively. Subsequently, a further consultation step with other scientists and healthcare professionals will be performed.

The research findings will be published through an open-access peer-reviewed journal. The results of this scoping review will be used to inform further studies on physical impacts on immunotherapy. All data included will be from open resources, therefore, no ethical clearances are required.