Therapy improves quality of life in cancer

A series of therapy sessions designed to address all aspects of cancer patients' lives, from physical fitness to spiritual well-being, can help maintain and improve their quality of life. Researchers from the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota found that people undergoing cancer treatment experience a decline in quality of life. Interventions designed to help maintain these patients' well-being may include education on cancer, coping strategies, and emotional support, but they usually only address one or two aspects of quality of life. The researchers developed a program designed to target all five domains or aspects of quality of life - cognitive, physical, emotional, spiritual, and social functioning. To test, they assigned 103 patients with advanced cancer undergoing radiation therapy to receive the intervention or to a control group given standard medical care. The intervention consisted of eight 90-minute sessions, each opening with 20 minutes of conditioning exercise with a physical therapist and closing with10 to 20 minutes of guided relaxation. The sessions also featured training in coping skills, such as making healthy lifestyle changes and keeping journals; stress management training and training in assertiveness and goal setting. Sessions also included social support from both therapists and other patients and addressed spiritual issues, for example religious beliefs and feelings of grief, guilt and hope. At the end of the eight weeks, quality of life improved by 3 points (on a scale of 1 to 100) in the group who participated in the therapy sessions, but dropped 9 points in the control group. Participating patients showed improvements in physical symptoms; emotional, social and spiritual well-being and legal concerns compared to those in the control group. The sessions cost about $2,000 per participant. The potential benefit obtained in the quality of the advanced cancer patient's limited life span is well worth the expense of the intervention.