Massage & Bodywork

JULY | AUGUST 2015

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F r e e S O A P n o t e s w i t h M a s s a g e B o o k f o r A B M P m e m b e r s : a b m p . u s / M a s s a g e b o o k 53 MASSAGE FOR BREAST CANCER A second recent meta-analysis in the literature focused on massage therapy for treatment-related side effects in patients with breast cancer. 2 In this article, the researchers focused not only on cancer pain but also anxiety, depression, upper limb lymphedema, cortisol levels, and health-related quality of life. Four research databases were searched for relevant articles. Studies were included if the subjects were female, aged 18 years or older, had a history of breast cancer, and received active breast cancer treatments. Studies also had to be randomized controlled trials focused on the effects of massage for treatment-related symptoms. Eighteen clinical trials involving a total of 3,889 subjects were included in the meta-analysis. The majority of studies occurred in Europe and North America, with one study from Israel. No study achieved perfect methodological quality, with the main issues including: no report of how random sequence generation occurred, no description of blinding of assessors and/or subjects, and no report of incomplete data. Participants in the studies ranged from 48 to 78 years old, had various stages of breast cancer (stage 0 to IV ), and had various forms of treatment (chemotherapy, hormone therapy, radiation, surgery, or a combination of therapies). The type of massage therapy varied by clinical trial and included foot reflexology, lymphatic drainage techniques, myofascial release, scalp massage, self-massage, and Swedish massage. Control groups received no treatment, usual care, health education classes, health-care visits, modified massage treatments without energy-balancing features, compression bandages, or self-administered treatment. The overall results of the meta-analysis demonstrated a significant improvement in cancer pain with massage treatment compared to conventional care or no massage. After further analysis regarding the specific cause of cancer pain, the researchers found massage therapy significantly improved cancer pain after surgery, after chemotherapy, due to metastases, and due to a combination of these symptoms. In other words, all types of pain during the process of cancer treatment were improved by massage therapy. Different types of cancer were included in this review and the researchers discovered that all types of cancer demonstrated significant improvement in pain due to massage therapy, with the majority of studies being specific for breast and digestive cancers. When the results were subdivided by massage type, significant effects occurred with body massage, foot reflexology, and aroma massage, with foot reflexology being the most effective treatment. As in all review articles, there are limitations to these results. First, a variety of cancer types were included in this meta-analysis, making it difficult to discern the effect of massage on each specific type or stage of cancer. Second, differences were noticed based on the type of massage, possibly also due to the practitioner's qualifications, experience, or clinical expertise. Third, some subjects were not able to be blinded to their treatment group allocation, possibly leading to biased reports of improvement in the massage treatment group compared to subject reports in the control groups. Finally, not all studies were performed in the United States, possibly leading to outcomes that may not be generalizable to American patients due to differences in health care, social/economic environment, or other related factors. The researchers found that all types of pain during the process of cancer treatment were improved by massage therapy.

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