Yoga for symptom management in oncology: A review of the evidence base and future directions for research

Abstract

Because yoga is increasingly recognized as a complementary approach to cancer symptom management, patients/survivors and providers need to understand its potential benefits and limitations both during and after treatment. The authors reviewed randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of yoga conducted at these points in the cancer continuum (N = 29; n = 13 during treatment, n = 12 post‐treatment, and n = 4 with mixed samples). Findings both during and after treatment demonstrated the efficacy of yoga to improve overall quality of life (QOL), with improvement in subdomains of QOL varying across studies. Fatigue was the most commonly measured outcome, and most RCTs conducted during or after cancer treatment reported improvements in fatigue. Results also suggested that yoga can improve stress/distress during treatment and post‐treatment disturbances in sleep and cognition. Several RCTs provided evidence that yoga may improve biomarkers of stress, inflammation, and immune function. Outcomes with limited or mixed findings (eg, anxiety, depression, pain, cancer‐specific symptoms, such as lymphedema) and positive psychological outcomes (such as benefit‐finding and life satisfaction) warrant further study. Important future directions for yoga research in oncology include: enrolling participants with cancer types other than breast, standardizing self‐report assessments, increasing the use of active control groups and objective measures, and addressing the heterogeneity of yoga interventions, which vary in type, key components (movement, meditation, breathing), dose, and delivery mode.

Higher levels of stress and different coping strategies are associated with greater morning and evening fatigue severity in oncology patients receiving chemotherapy

“…Given the negative impact of fatigue on oncology patients receiving CTX [40], the higher scores on the avoidance, intrusion, and hyperarousal subscales of the IES-R are not unexpected. Our findings suggest that interventions to decrease cancer-specific stress (e.g., yoga [41]) may decrease fatigue severity.…”

Best-Evidence Rehabilitation for Chronic Pain Part 2: Pain during and after Cancer Treatment

“…However, only women with breast cancer were included. Yoga is becoming very popular in cancer rehabilitation as well, as reflected by the 29 RCTs summarized in the review of Danhauer et al [49] (Table 1, Section 5. Mind-body therapy).…”

Rationale and design of a randomised controlled trial investigating the effect of multidisciplinary nutritional rehabilitation for patients treated for head and neck cancer (the NUTRI-HAB trial)

“…Yoga may contribute to improve quality of life and to reduce fatigue and symptoms of distress and anxiety in cancer survivors [54,55]. The yoga session will be based on principles from Hatha yoga and Physioflow yoga.…”