Massage therapy significantly improved cancer patients’ symptoms, such as pain, anxiety, nausea, fatigue and depression, according to a recent study.

“Massage Therapy for Symptom Control: Outcome Study at a Major Cancer Center” was conducted by staff of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York City.

Three types of massage are available to patients at MSKCC: Swedish, light-touch and foot massage. Each massage lasts 20 minutes for inpatients and one hour for outpatients. Patients may request the massage themselves, or be referred by a health professional or family member.

As a “routine part of clinical management,” patients rate pain, fatigue, anxiety, nausea and depression before and 5-15 minutes after each massage. For this study, the symptom with the highest score was deemed the presenting symptom

The study’s authors analyzed before-and-after data from the initial massage session of 1,290 cancer patients at MSKCC during a three-year period.

Swedish and foot massage were the most common interventions, with some patients receiving a combination of both. Anxiety was the most common presenting symptom of the cancer patients, followed by pain and fatigue.

Data analysis revealed a 54-percent mean reduction of the presenting symptom following massage therapy. Specifically, anxiety was the symptom eased the most by massage therapy (60-percent reduction), and fatigue was the symptom eased the least (43 percent). Outpatients showed a 10-percent greater improvement in symptoms when compared to inpatients, perhaps due to the longer massage sessions the outpatients received.

It is clear that massage therapy achieves major reductions in cancer patients’ pain, fatigue, nausea, anxiety and depression,” state the study’s authors.

Additional follow-up, beyond immediate post-session scores, involved 74 outpatients and 237 inpatients. Both inpatients and outpatients were assessed two-to-five hours after the massage. Outpatients were again assessed 24 hours and 48 hours after the massage.

Results of this extended follow-up showed that inpatients’ symptoms scores were about a half-point higher within hours of the massage. “This suggests that inpatient severity scores returned to baseline within a day or so,” state the study’s authors.

For outpatients, there was no regression toward baseline symptom scores throughout the follow-up period.

“Massage therapy appears to be an uncommonly non-invasive and inexpensive means of symptom control for patients with serious chronic illness,” state the study’s authors. “It is non-invasive, inexpensive, comforting, free of side effects and greatly appreciated by recipients.

Both massage therapy and healing touch reduced blood pressure, respiratory rate, heart rate, total mood disturbance and pain. Subjects in the healing-touch group also had lower fatigue, while subjects in the massage group had lower anxiety and used less nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).

Caring presence was found to reduce respiratory rate and heart rate, but did not differ from standard care on any other outcomes.

"[Massage therapy] and [healing touch] were more effective than presence alone or standard care in inducing physical relaxation, reducing pain, improving mood states and fatigue," state the study's authors. "These results clearly suggest a benefit to both massage and [healing touch] that goes beyond the mere presence of a caring practitioner."

 

 

- Source: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s Integrative Medicine Service and Biostatistics Service, New York City. Authors: Barrie R. Cassileth, Ph.D.; and Andrew J. Vickers, Ph.D. Originally published in Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, September 2004, Vol. 28, No. 3, pp. 244-249.