Appendix 1. Search strategy for Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL)

For Children the following thesaurus terms and text words were used:

#1.[mh ^adolescent] or [mh child] or [mh infant]

#2.(infan* or neonat* or newborn or baby or babies or child* or schoolchild* or kid or kids or toddler* or adoles* or teen* or boy* or girl* or minor* or underag* or (under NEXT ag*) or juvenil* or youth* or kindergar* or puber* or pubescen* or prepubescen* or prepuberty* or pediatric* or paediatric* or peadiatric* or school* or preschool* or highschool* or "high school"):ti,ab,kw

#3.(pediatric* or paediatric* or child* or adolesc*):so

#4.#1 or #2 or #3

For Cancer the following thesaurus terms and text words were used:

#5.([mh Neoplasms] or (oncolog* or neoplas* or carcinom* or tumor* or tumour* or cancer* or malignan* or "hemato‐oncologic*" or hematolo* or "haemato‐oncologic*" or haematolo or bone marrow transplant* or leukemi* or leukaemi* or AML or lymphom* or hodgkin* or "T‐cell" or "B‐cell" or "non‐hodgkin" or sarcom* or Ewing* or osteosarcom* orwilms* or nephroblastom* or neuroblastom* or rhabdomyosarcom* or teratom* or hepatom* or hepatoblastom* or medulloblastom* or PNET* or retinoblastom* or meningiom* or gliom*):ti,ab,kw) not (breast*:ti or [mh "breast neoplasms"])

For Physical therapy the following thesaurus terms and text words were used:

#6.[mh "Physical Therapy Modalities"] or [mh ^"physical therapy specialty"] or [mh ^"physical and rehabilitation medicine"] or [mh "range of motion, articular"] or [mh ^gait] or [mh ^proprioception]

#7.[mh ^"postural balance"] or [mh ^"muscle stretching exercises"]

#8.[mh "ultrasonic therapy"] or [mh ^Cryotherapy]

#9.[mh ^"short‐wave therapy"]

#10.#6 or #7 or #8 or #9

#11.((exercis* NEAR/4 (therap* or strength or balance or gait or stretch*)) or (manual NEXT therap*) or (physical NEXT therap*) or physiotherap* or "stability training" or "muscle training" or "strength training" or "resistance training" or locomotion* or (functional NEXT therap*) or "weight lifting" or kinesiotherap* or manipulation* or "short‐wave‐therap*" or cryotherap* or electrotherap* or "ultraso* therap*" or (rehab* NEAR/6 physical)):ti,ab,kw

#12.#4 and #5 and #10 and #11

^: denotes a non‐exploded subject heading

mh: subject heading

[so]: Word in journal title

[tw]: text word (title and abstract)

near/6: up to 6 words can intervene between the word(s) to the left of the operator and the word(s) to the right.

*=zero or more characters

Appendix 2. Search strategy for MEDLINE Ovid

1 For Children the following MeSH headings and text words were used:

1. adolescent/ or exp child/ or exp infant/

2. (infan* or neonat* or newborn or baby or babies or child* or schoolchild* or kid or kids or toddler* or adoles* or teen* or boy* or girl* or minor* or underag* or under ag* or juvenil* or youth* or kindergar* or puber* or pubescen* or prepubescen* or prepuberty* or pediatrics or pediatric* or paediatric* or peadiatric* or school* or preschool* or highschool*).mp.

3. (pediatric* or paediatric* or child* or adolesc*).jw.

4. or/1‐3

2 For Cancer the following MeSH headings and text words were used:

1. exp Neoplasms/

2. (oncolog* or neoplas* or carcinom* or tumor* or tumour* or cancer* or malignan* or hemato‐oncological or hematolo* or bone marrow transplant* or leukemi* or leukaemi* or AML or lymphom* or hodgkin* or T‐cell or B‐cell or non‐hodgkin or sarcom* or Ewing* or osteosarcom* or wilms* or nephroblastom* or neuroblastom* or rhabdomyosarcom* or teratom* or hepatom* or hepatoblastom* or medulloblastom* or PNET* or retinoblastom* or meningiom* or gliom*).mp.

3. 1 or 2

4. breast*.ti. or exp breast neoplasms/

5. 3 not 4

3 For Physical therapy the following MeSH headings and text words were used:

1. exp Physical Therapy Modalities/

2. physical therapy specialty/

3. "physical and rehabilitation medicine"/

4. "range of motion, articular"/

5. gait/

6. proprioception/ or postural balance/

7. muscle stretching exercises/

8. short‐wave therapy/ or exp ultrasonic therapy/

9. Cryotherapy/

10. ((exercis* adj4 (therapeutic or strength or balance or gait or stretch*)) or manual therap* or physical therap* or physiotherap* or stability training or muscle training or strength training or locomotion* or functional therap* or weight lifting or kinesiotherap* or manipulation* or short‐wave‐therap* or cryotherap* or electrotherap* or ultraso* therap* or (rehab* adj6 physical)).tw,kf.

11. or/1‐10

4 For RCTs and CCTs the following MeSH headings and text words were used:

1. exp clinical trial/

2. control groups/

3. double‐blind method/

4. random allocation/

5. cross‐over studies/

6. (random* or quasi‐random* or quasi‐experiment* or cross‐over or placebo or trial or groups or double blind).mp.

7. randomized controlled trial/

8. or/1‐7

Final search: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4

/=MeSH term, *=zero or more characters

adj4, adj6, adj#= up to # words can intervene between the word(s) to the left of the operator and the word(s) to the right

[mp]= multiple places (title, abstract, subject headings, author keywords)

[tw]= text word (title and abstract)

[kf]= author keyword

[jw]= Word in journal title

The child search was based on the CCG standard search strategy for children (Leclercq 2013).

Appendix 3. Search strategy for Embase Ovid

1 For Children the following Emtree terms and text words were used:

1. adolescent/ or exp child/ or exp infant/

2. (infan* or neonat* or newborn or baby or babies or child* or schoolchild* or kid or kids or toddler* or adoles* or teen* or boy* or girl* or underag* or under ag* or juvenil* or youth* or kindergar* or puber* or pubescen* or prepubescen* or prepuberty* or pediatrics or pediatric* or paediatric* or peadiatric* or school* or preschool* or highschool*).mp.

3. (pediatric* or paediatric* or child* or adolesc*).jx.

4. or/1‐13

2 For Cancer the following Emtree terms and text words were used:

1. exp neoplasm/

2. (oncolog* or neoplas* or carcinom* or tumor* or tumour* or cancer* or malignan* or hemato‐oncological or hematolo* or bone marrow transplant* or leukemi* or leukaemi* or AML or lymphom* or hodgkin* or T‐cell or B‐cell or non‐hodgkin or sarcom* or Ewing* or osteosarcom* or wilms* or nephroblastom* or neuroblastom* or rhabdomyosarcom* or teratom* or hepatom* or hepatoblastom* or medulloblastom* or PNET* or retinoblastom* or meningiom* or gliom*).mp.

3. 1 or 2

4. breast*.ti. or exp breast tumor/

5. 3 not 4

3 For Physical therapy the following Emtree terms and text words were used:

1. exp physiotherapy/

2. physical medicine/ or electrostimulation therapy/ or exp kinesiotherapy/ or exp manipulative medicine/ or exp ultrasound therapy/

3. "range of motion"/

4. gait/

5. proprioception/

6. exp body equilibrium/

7. stretching exercise/

8. exp diathermy/

9. cryotherapy/

10. ((exercis* adj4 (therapeutic or strength or balance or gait or stretch*)) or manual therap* or physical therap* or physiotherap* or stability training or muscle training or strength training or locomotion* or functional therap* or weight lifting or kinesiotherap* or manipulation* or short‐wave‐therap* or cryotherap* or electrotherap* or ultraso* therap* or (rehab* adj6 physical)).tw,kw.

11. or/6‐15

12. adolescent/ or exp child/ or exp infant/

13. (infan* or neonat* or newborn or baby or babies or child* or schoolchild* or kid or kids or toddler* or adoles* or teen* or boy* or girl* or underag* or under ag* or juvenil* or youth* or kindergar* or puber* or pubescen* or prepubescen* or prepuberty* or pediatrics or pediatric* or paediatric* or peadiatric* or school* or preschool* or highschool*).mp.

14. (pediatric* or paediatric* or child* or adolesc*).jx.

15. or/1‐14

4 For RCTs and CCTs the following Emtree terms and text words were used:

1. exp clinical trial/

2. control groups/

3. double blind procedure/

4. randomization/

5. crossover procedure/

6. (random* or quasi‐random* or quasi‐experiment* or cross‐over or placebo or trial or groups or double blind).mp.

7. randomized controlled trial/

8. or/1‐7

Final search 1 and 2 and 3 and 4

/=Emtree term; *=zero or more characters

adj4, adj6, adj#= up to # words can intervene between the word(s) to the left of the operator and the word(s) to the right

[mp]= multiple places (title, abstract, subject headings, author keywords)

[tw]= text word (title and abstract)

[kw]= author keyword

[jx]= Word in journal title

Appendix 4. Search strategy for CINAHL/EBSCO

1 For Children the following Subject headings and text words were used:

S1. ( (MH "Child+") OR (MH "Adolescence+") ) OR ( infan* or neonat* or newborn or baby or babies or child* or schoolchild* or kid or kids or toddler* or adoles* or teen* or boy* or girl* or minor* or underag* or under ag* or juvenil* or youth* or kindergar* or puber* or pubescen* or prepubescen* or prepuberty* or pediatrics or pediatric* or paediatric* or peadiatric* or school* or preschool* or highschool* ) OR SO ( pediatric* or paediatric* or child* or adolesc* )

2 For Cancer the following Subject headings and text words will be used:

S1. (MH "Neoplasms+") OR ( oncolog* or neoplas* or carcinom* or tumor* or tumour* or cancer* or malignan* or hemato‐oncological or hematolo* or bone marrow transplant* or leukemi* or leukaemi* or AML or lymphom* or hodgkin* or T‐cell or B‐cell or non‐hodgkin or sarcom* or Ewing* or osteosarcom* or wilms* or nephroblastom* or neuroblastom* or rhabdomyosarcom* or teratom* or hepatom* or hepatoblastom* or medulloblastom* or PNET* or retinoblastom* or meningiom* or gliom* )

S2. (MH "Breast Neoplasms+") OR TI breast*

S3. S1 NOT S2

3 For Physical therapy the following Subject headings and text words were used:

S1. (MH "Physical Therapy+")

S2. (MH "Research, Physical Therapy")

S3. (MH "Proprioception+")

S4. (MH "Balance, Postural")

S5. (MH "Range of Motion")

S6. (exercis* n4 (therapeutic or strength or balance or gait or stretch*)) or manual therap* or physical therap* or physiotherap* or stability training or muscle training or strength training or locomotion* or functional therap* or weight lifting or kinesiotherap* or manipulation* or short‐wave‐therap* or cryotherap* or electrotherap* or ultraso* therap* or (rehab* n6 physical)

S7. S1 OR S2 OR S3 OR S4 OR S5 OR S6

4 For RCTs and CCTs the following MeSH headings and text words were used:

S1. ( (MH "Random Sample+") OR (MH "Control Group") OR (MH "Clinical Trials+") OR (MH "Randomized Controlled Trials") OR (MH "Crossover Design") OR (MH "Quasi‐Experimental Studies+") ) OR ( random* or quasi‐random* or quasi‐experiment* or cross‐over or placebo or trial or groups or double blind )

Final search: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4

MH= subject heading TI= title SO= journal title/source

+= denotes that the subject heading was exploded

*= zero or more characters

n4, n6 (n#) = adjacency operator where # is the maximum number of words that two terms can be separated by

Appendix 5. Search strategy for PEDro

Three different search strategies, combining the results with OR were used to search this database:

Search A

1. paediatric* <Abstract & Title> field

2. oncology <Subdiscipline> field

3. stretching, mobilisation, manipulation, massage <Therapy> field.

4. clinical trial <Method> field

Search B

1. child* <Abstract & Title> field

2. oncology <Subdiscipline> field

3. stretching, mobilisation, manipulation, massage <Therapy> field.

4. clinical trial <Method> field

Search C

1. adolescent* <Abstract & Title> field

2. oncology <Subdiscipline> field

3. stretching, mobilisation, manipulation, massage <Therapy> field.

4. clinical trial <Method> field

Appendix 6. Key terms for ongoing trials registries

1. www.isctrn.org (ISCTRN register)
We browsed by "Cancer" studies, limited by "Child", and scanned results with the search terms: "physical therapy"; physiotherapy; rehabilitation.

2. www.clinicaltrials.gov(National Institutes of Health (NIH) Register for ongoing trials)
We searched at the Advanced search page:
Study type: Interventional studies
Group: Child (birth‐17yrs) will be checked
Condition: cancer OR neoplasm OR oncology
Interventions: "physical therapy" OR physiotherapy OR rehab*

3. http://apps.who.int./trialsearch(WHO portal)
We will search at the Advanced search page:
(cancer OR oncology OR neoplasm) AND (physical therapy OR physiotherapy OR rehabilitation)
Check box for clinical trials in Children

Appendix 7. Key terms for conference proceedings

ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) website

We searched the meeting library (meetinglibrary.asco.org) with different search strategies combining key words.

Searches separated by semicolons:

"physical therapy" child; "physical therapy" children; "physical therapy" childhood; "physiotherapy" child; "physiotherapy" children; "physiotherapy" childhood; "rehabilitation" child; "rehabilitation" children; "rehabilitation" childhood.

MASCC (Multinational Association for Supportive Care in Cancer) website

We searched the meeting abstracts (http://www.mascc.org/past‐annual‐meetings) with different key words:

"physical therapy"; physiotherapy; rehabilitation; child; infant

The SIOP (International Society for Paediatric Oncology) and ASPHO (American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology) abstracts were searched by using the "Find text" in pdf documents with the keywords: physical therapy; physiotherapy; rehabilitation