Mind-Body Practices in Cancer Care

Abstract

Being diagnosed with a life threatening disease such as cancer and undergoing treatment can cause unwanted distress and interferes with quality of life. Uncontrolled stress can have a negative effect on a number of biological systems and processes leading to negative health outcomes. While some distress is normal, it is not benign and must be addressed, as failure to do so may compromise health and QOL outcomes. We present the evidence for the role of stress in cancer biology and mechanisms demonstrating how distress is associated with worse clinical outcomes. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network states that all patients be screened with the single-item Distress Thermometer and to also indicate the source of distress and to get appropriate referral. In addition to the many conventional approaches for managing distress from the fields of psychology and psychiatry, many patients are seeking strategies to manage their distress that are outside conventional medicine such as mind-body techniques. Mind-body techniques such as meditation, yoga, tai chi, and qigong have been found to lower distress and lead to improvements in different aspects of quality of life. It is essential that the standard of care in oncology include distress screening and the delivery of different techniques to help patients manage the psychosocial challenges of diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

A Pragmatic Evaluation of Symptom Distress After Group Meditation for Cancer Patients and Caregivers: A Preliminary Report

“…Future research should also explore the possible mechanisms whereby meditation leads to reduced symptom burden. Although reduction is subjective stress states and buffering of sympathetic nervous system activation are posited as some of the benefits of meditation and other mind-body practices, 8 further evidence in this area will help justify the more widespread use of these practices. Based on extensive existing research showing the benefits of meditation in an oncology setting and our current findings showing the acute effects of a single meditation session, more hospitals and centers should consider offering mind-body programs to help improve cancer patients and caregivers quality of life.…”

The Impact of Everyday Stressors on the Immune System and Health

“…Moreover, psychological interventions including cognitive behavioral stress management (Antoni et al 2009;Gallegos et al 2015), meditation (Rosenkranz et al 2016), and yoga (Kiecolt-Glaser et al 2010) have been demonstrated to improve immune function in diverse populations, including healthy individuals, women exposed to trauma, and cancer patients. These stressreduction interventions seem to result in a healthy balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic arousal (Chaoul et al 2014).…”

Effect of Yoga Therapy on Symptoms of Anxiety in Cancer Patients

“…In recent years, yoga in particular has more and more become a modality of supportive care and a focus of research [11]. Effects on various physical and psychological outcomes as well as quality of life were examined, but only few outcomes assessed showed significantly large results [12,13,14,15,16,17].…”