Yoga for Women with Metastatic Breast Cancer: Results from a Pilot Study

Abstract

Metastatic breast cancer (MBC) remains a terminal illness for which major treatment advances are slow to appear, and hence it is crucial that effective palliative interventions be developed to reduce the cancer-related symptoms of women with this condition during the remaining years of their lives. This pilot/feasibility study examined a novel, yoga-based palliative intervention, the Yoga of Awareness Program, in a sample of women with MBC. The eight-week protocol included gentle yoga postures, breathing exercises, meditation, didactic presentations, and group interchange. Outcome was assessed using daily measures of pain, fatigue, distress, invigoration, acceptance, and relaxation during two preintervention weeks and the final two weeks of the intervention. Thirteen women completed the intervention (mean age=59; mean time since diagnosis=7 years; two African American, 11 Caucasian). During the study, four participants had cancer recurrences, and the physical condition of several others deteriorated noticeably. Despite low statistical power, pre-to-post multilevel outcomes analyses showed significant increases in invigoration and acceptance. Lagged analyses of length of home yoga practice (controlling for individual mean practice time and outcome levels on the lagged days) showed that on the day after a day during which women practiced more, they experienced significantly lower levels of pain and fatigue, and higher levels of invigoration, acceptance, and relaxation. These findings support the need for further investigation of the effects of the Yoga of Awareness Program in women with MBC.

Therapeutic Yoga: Symptom Management for Multiple Sclerosis

“…36 The past decade of research has demonstrated a variety of therapeutic benefits associated with the practice of yoga in treating many illnesses, chronic diseases, and disabilities, such as chronic pain, 36 high blood pressure, 37 autism spectrum disorder, 38 trauma, 39 Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, fibromyalgia, peripheral nervous system disorders, 10 fatigue and mood, 40,41 chronic insomnia, 42 depression, 43 heart attack and stroke, 36 and eating disorders, 44 as well as improved quality of life, 41 neuromuscular function, 45 flexibility, 46 and better physical, emotional, and spiritual wellness among patients with cancer. 47 For example, Carson and colleagues 47 looked at the effects of a novel yoga intervention-the Yoga Awareness Program-among 13 women with metastatic breast cancer. The 8-week yoga intervention included the practice of gentle yoga asanas, breathing exercises, meditation, didactic presentations, and group interchange.…”

Yoga Breathing for Cancer Chemotherapy–Associated Symptoms and Quality of Life: Results of a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

“…11,13,16 Several studies have investigated the efficacy of a multimodality yoga intervention, which includes breathing, postures, and/or meditation, in a population of patients with cancer. [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] However, conclusive results are lacking. 30 Many studies have small and mixed samples (i.e., included both patients who were receiving cancer treatment and those post-treatment) and others have methodological limitations leading to challenges in drawing definitive conclusions.…”

“I’m 100% for it! I’m a convert!”: Women's experiences of a yoga programme during treatment for gynaecological cancer; an interpretative phenomenological analysis

“…The latter two themes reflect physical and social perspectives -established topics in the cancer and yoga literature [14,15,22,36]. The complexities of how these women come to experience social and physical benefits and how these benefits are contextualised within the women's experiences of cancer treatment are explored.…”

“…Yoga has been identified as beneficial to psychological and physical well-being in a variety of healthy and non-healthy populations [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13], including cancer [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. Reported benefits of participating in yoga for cancer patients include reduction of treatment-induced side effects and relief of symptoms of the disease itself [14][15][16]: these are often measured on validated quantitative scales. Although randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are generally considered the gold standard for establishing causation in medical studies [25], qualitative research is also suggested to be beneficial as it explores patients' understanding and beliefs about an intervention, their expectations of possible outcomes, and their understanding of the impact, context and process of their participation [26].…”

“…However, little research has explored the lived patient experiences of taking part in yoga interventions to improve physical and psychological wellbeing. Research by Carson et al [14] reported the inclusion of a limited amount of qualitative feedback in their randomised controlled trial. This feedback indicated that the overall content of the programme was appropriate and very useful, and provided further insight into the value of the intervention as well as problems and concerns experienced by cancer patients participating in the programme.…”