Researchers find that mind-body interventions ease symptoms, providing meaningful benefits to patients
The Mindfulness and Tai Chi for Cancer Health (MATCH) study looked at over 500 cancer survivors with varying types and stages of cancer and found that patients experienced less pain, fatigue, and sleep problems after participating in the interventions. The study, which was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, was a collaborative effort between researchers at the University of Calgary, University of Toronto and Mass General Brigham in Boston, Massachusetts.
“These findings reinforce the value of a whole-person approach to cancer survivorship care,” said senior author Peter Wayne, PhD, Director of the Osher Center for Integrative Health at Mass General Brigham. “We found that both mindfulness-based cancer recovery and tai chi/qigong helped participants manage some of the most common and burdensome challenges faced after cancer treatment, including fatigue, pain and, in the case of tai chi/qigong, sleep difficulties. The strong relationships among improvements in these symptoms suggest that mind-body interventions may help support health and well-being in an integrated way.”
Mindfulness-based cancer recovery (MBCR) involves meditation practices, breathing techniques, gentle stretching, group discussion and incorporation of attitudes like acceptance and compassion to help manage patients’ responses to various stages of illness and treatment. Tai chi and qigong (TCQ) are ancient Chinese mind-body practices that integrate gentle flowing movements with heightened attention to body sensations and breathing, which also helps patients regulate their thoughts and emotions.
“More and more people with cancer are surviving longer term but often, they are struggling with long-term side effects that can be difficult to manage, “said Linda E. Carlson, PhD, a professor at the University of Calgary and lead investigator on the study. “This study highlights that the cancer experience doesn’t just end for survivors after active treatment is done, and we hope it starts a conversation amongst medical teams about how to incorporate these mind-body therapies into overall cancer care.”
The MATCH study allowed participants to choose the practice they would like to do. If they didn’t have a preference, an intervention was assigned to them. The study compared outcomes from participants to patients on a waitlist for the trial.
Pain was measured in two ways: intensity and interference with daily activities. Although there were minimal effects on intensity, pain interference, the more psychological aspect of pain, improved over time with both practices.
The approach of mind-body therapies like MBCR and TCQ often focuses on the overall experience of suffering from pain, helping people learn to better manage and respond to existing pain. Researchers also found that symptoms of pain interference, sleep disturbance and fatigue tended to cluster together, so when one symptom improved, the other two did as well.
Authorship: Yan Ma and Peter M. Wayne are the Mass General Brigham authors on the study. Additional authors include Linda E. Carlson, Jennifer M. Jones, Oluwaseyi A. Lawal, Devesh Oberoi, Katherine-Ann Piedalue, Daniel Santa Mina and Michael Speca.
Disclosures: Carlson reports book royalties from American Psychological Association Books and New Harbinger Books and an uncompensated relationship with Mobio Interactive. Wayne reports a relationship with the Tree of Life Tai Chi Center. Additional author disclosures can be found in the paper.
Funding: This study was funded in part by the Lotte & John Hecht Memorial Foundation (grant 4000). Additional support included National Institutes of Health National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health grants K23AT012475 and K24AT009282.
Paper cited: Ma Y et al. “Mindfulness and Tai Chi for Sleep, Fatigue, and Pain in Distressed People After Cancer Treatment: A Partially Randomized Patient-Preference Comparative Effectiveness Trial,” Journal of Clinical Oncology DOI: 10.1200/JCO-25-01967
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