Yoga May Help Breast Cancer Patients During Radiation Therapy

Published on: 10:42 AM

Yoga May Help Breast Cancer Patients

Study found it lowered levels of stress hormones, reduced fatigue, improved quality of life

WebMD News from HealthDay

By Kathleen Doheny

HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, March 4, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Women with breast cancer who practiced yoga had lower levels of stress hormones and reported less fatigue and better quality of life, new research shows.

"Yoga is having an impact on subjective well-being, as well as better regulation of cortisol, a stress hormone," said study co-author Lorenzo Cohen, director of the integrative medicine program at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston. "Better regulation of stress hormones has been linked with better survival and longer survival."

The study is published in the March 3 online edition of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Other research has found yoga helpful for cancer patients, Cohen said, but some of those studies have looked at small numbers of patients and others have not compared the yoga group to a "control" group to measure results.

For the new study, Cohen assigned more than 160 women with breast cancer who were undergoing radiation therapy to do either yoga or stretching up to three times a week for an hour each session. Those two groups were compared to a control group that received no instruction in either yoga or stretching.

The women reported on their quality of life, including how fatigued or depressed they felt, and described their daily functioning. They gave saliva samples at the study's start, the end of treatment, and at one, three and six months after treatment, so cortisol could be measured.

Women in the yoga group had the greatest reduction in cortisol levels across the day, which reflected the ability of yoga to help regulate stress hormones, the study authors noted.

After finishing radiation treatment, which is linked with fatigue, only the yoga and stretching groups reported feeling less tired, the findings showed. The yoga group had more benefits in physical functioning than the other two groups.

No differences were found between the groups for mental health and sleep quality. That may have been because all the women were doing fairly well on those measures at the study's start, Cohen said.

Previous studies have linked exercise with better well-being and less fatigue among cancer patients, said Dr. Joanne Mortimer, director of women's cancer programs and co-director of the breast cancer program at City of Hope Cancer Center in Duarte, Calif.

Recommending exercise to a cancer patient who is already tired may sound counterintuitive, Mortimer said, but research suggests that's not so.

"This study supports that the more you do, the better off you are," Mortimer explained.

Cohen put it this way: "I think it's important for breast cancer patients to engage in some sort of activity to buffer [dealing with the disease]."

Yoga, he said, provides an important mind-body approach to help patients get physical activity, relax and calm their mind.

While yoga class offerings are widespread, Cohen pointed out that "it's important to find the right kind of yoga teacher. It's about doing a gentler form of yoga."

He suggested women with breast cancer ask their doctor first if they can participate in yoga, then find a yoga instructor with experience leading a class that includes cancer patients.

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Music Therapy May Ease Anxiety of Cancer Patients

Published on: 2:22 AM

Music Therapy PBS Shoot-24 (Photo credit: Inkyhack)

Study Shows Benefits of Listening to Music and Working With a Music Therapist
Aug. 10, 2011 -- Listening to recorded music or working with a music therapist may reduce anxiety levels of cancer patients and have other positive effects as well, a new study shows.
Listening to recorded music, singing, playing an instrument, or otherwise participating in music making apparently also have positive effects on general mood, pain, and quality of life, according to the study.
The study is published in the August issue of Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.

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Breast Cancer Screening Not Always Helpful

Published on: 7:37 PM

A woman receives a mammogram at the Naval Medical Center San Diego Breast Health Center. Photo by U.S. Navy/Joseph Moon/Wikimedia Commons

Catching some cancers early on can save lives, but we rarely hear about how cancer screening might not be meeting our expectations.

This idea -- that some screening might not help all patients -- has received much attention, and a recent study in the British Medical Journal supports the notion that breast cancer screening may not reduce mortality.

Scientists pose the question: Is early screening driving a reduction in breast cancer mortalities or can fewer deaths be attributed to access to better health services and treatments?

NEWS: Breath Test Could Reveal Cancer

After examining World Health Organization data from three pairs of neighboring European countries that implemented breast screening programs at different times, researchers studied the relationship between screening services offered and cancer mortality.

Data gathered from these countries between 1989 and 2006 showed that neighboring country pairs with similar breast cancer rates and access to health care did not differ much when it came to patient mortality from the condition. Countries that put forward screening programs earlier did not see fewer deaths when compared to countries that created programs later.

Though screening for breast cancer didn't appear to reduce deaths in this analysis, screening for other conditions such as cervical cancer have been shown to reduce deaths, the authors write.

What we're seeing is a diversification of cancers and how doctors deal with them. After the introduction of breast and prostate cancer screening, the prevalence of the two cancers also increased, which makes sense. But there's also evidence that cancer-related deaths have dropped in time, but it's hard to associate fewer mortalities with screening -- at least for people with no signs or symptoms of cancer.

BLOG: Breast Cancer and the 'Fat Taboo'

For mammograms, a common method to screen for breast cancer, it's important to weigh the costs and benefits. For instance, mammograms require experts to use X-rays to image a woman's breasts, exposing her to ionizing radiation that's known to increase one's risk of cancer. There are also cases in which women are mistakenly diagnosed, or "false-positives." If doctors believe an area might be cancerous, women may be encouraged to undergo a biopsy for doctors to study the tissue in the lab. The process can negatively affect the mental health of women dealing with the anxiety of believing they have cancer.

Yet figuring out who would benefit from screening is also tricky because some women are more at risk than others. For these women, the benefits outweigh the risks of screening.

In the United States, current recommendations from the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force suggest women between the ages of 50 and 74 receive a mammogram every other year. Because the risk of developing breast cancer increases with age, reserving screening for at-risk groups is more recommended than screening all women.

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