Symptoms such as pain and nausea are common among patients with metastatic cancer, and symptom control is often inadequate. Massage therapy has been advocated as adjunctive therapy in the management of cancer related pain, but has received little careful study. We propose to examine the safety, acceptability, and tolerated duration of massage therapy among hospitalized patients with metastatic solid malignancies associated with poor prognoses. We will determine the feasibility of a randomized controlled trial of massage among hospitalized patients with cancer, and gather preliminary data on the efficacy of massage. Hospitalized patients will be screened at the time of admission for enrollment into the proposed study. Patients with a planned length of stay of 3 days or less will be excluded, as will patients who do not report pain related to their cancer. After obtaining informed consent, we will randomize patients to receive either daily massage, to a simple presence non-touch control group, or usual care. To optimize our ability to study safety and tolerated duration of massage, 50 patients will be randomized to massage while 25 patients will be randomized to usual care, and 25 patients will be randomized to a simple presence control group. The massage intervention will be provided daily by therapists using a standard scope of practice. Detailed data will be obtained by chart review and patient, physician, nurse, and caregiver interviews. Primary outcomes evaluated will be the safety and tolerated duration of massage. We will gather preliminary data on massage efficacy by collecting data on pain, anxiety, nausea, depression, shortness of breath, and satisfaction with symptom management during the hospitalization, and gain experience with a novel control group. Following completion of the first phase of data collection, we will provide instruction to caregivers enabling them to provide massage for patients at home, and we will gather data on the use of caregiver massage. We will also explore the potential for the intervention to improve the caregivers' experience caring for a loved one with metastatic cancer. The results of the proposed study will provide information on safety and dosage and provide the basis for more extensive study of the effects of massage among patients with cancer.
| Toth, Maria; Marcantonio, Edward R; Davis, Roger B et al. (2013) Massage therapy for patients with metastatic cancer: a pilot randomized controlled trial. J Altern Complement Med 19:650-6 |
