Exercise as an intervention in preventing and reducing chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity among breast cancer survivors: Protocol for a scoping review

Cardiotoxicity is a serious side effect of chemotherapy in breast cancer survivors. Although the use of anthracyclines and trastuzumab improves the survival rate, it also produces cardiotoxicity over a period of time. Exercises can be a choice of non-pharmacologic interventions in preventing and reducing the cardiotoxicity effects of chemotherapy. Exercise has been recognized as an effective means of preventing cardiovascular disease and has been shown to lower the risk of cardiovascular mortality. Exercise may also protect the heart from the cardiotoxic effects of chemotherapy in breast cancer survivors. The goal of this scoping review is to summarize the evidence on exercise as a treatment to reduce the cardiotoxicity caused by chemotherapy in breast cancer survivors. This scoping review will identify the research gaps and the need for the future research. The frameworks proposed by Arksey and O’Malley, as well as the methodology for conducting scoping reviews published by the Joanna Briggs Institute, will be used. The standards for reporting will be the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews. A search strategy was established using keywords associated with the theme. A structured literature search will be conducted through databases such as PubMed, Ovid Emcare, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library. The titles, abstracts, and full text will be screened by two independent reviewers using Covidence software. Data will be extracted from included records using a pre-determined data extraction form by two independent reviewers. Extracted data will be evaluated and summarized in tabular and diagrammatic format. A narrative summary will accompany the results in the form of charts or graphs, describing how the results relate to the purpose and questions of the review.