Table 2.

Inclusion and exclusion criteria for eligibility in the review.

	Inclusion Criteria	Exclusion Criteria
Population	Pediatric patients: pre-school (4–5 years), school (6–12 years), and Adolescents (13–19 years). Studies of children and adults (mixed population) may be included if: -Data for children may be isolated.	Children aged 0–3 years; adults aged 20–65; elderly populations (>65).
	Males and females.	No exclusion criteria.
	Patients with a diagnosis of cancer (hematological malignancies or solid tumors) regardless of cancer type, stage, and anticancer treatment phase. Studies on cancer patients and other hematological diseases (mixed) may be included if: -Data for patients with cancer may be isolated or a minimum of 60% of the sample was diagnosed with hematological cancer or solid tumor.	No exclusion criteria.
	Patients undergoing painful and/or anxiety-inducing medical procedures/cancer treatments.	No exclusion criteria.
Intervention	Virtual Reality (Immersive or non-Immersive).	Non-VR interventions. Multicomponent interventions in which the effect of VR could not be isolated.
Comparator/ Control	Any group(s) or control group(s): non-digital technology distraction modalities; usual care/standard of care; non-Virtual Reality digital technology distraction interventions.	Studies that do not include comparative data.
Outcomes	Pain and anxiety based on behavioural observations and self-reports (from patients, parents, healthcare workers, and researchers).	Outcomes different from pain (i.e., studies reported exclusively heart rate as a physiological measure of arousal) and anxiety (i.e., studies reported exclusively measures of fear, maladaptive behavior, or distress).
Setting	Any geographical location, any cultural factors (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender), and any healthcare settings, including inpatients and outpatient’s settings.	No exclusion criteria.
Study type	Experimental or quasi-experimental studies.	Observational studies, qualitative studies, review, editorial, commentary, letter to Editor, conference paper, abstract, dissertations, case-study, case-series studies, and quasi-experimental studies without a control/comparison group.
Additional criteria	Peer-reviewed or pre-printed studies.	Non-peer-reviewed studies. Grey literature.
	Articles published in English or Italian.	Studies published in any language other than English and Italian.