Yoga for symptom management in oncology: A review of the evidence base and future directions for research.
Author: Danhauer SC1, Addington EL2, Cohen L3, Sohl SJ1, Van Puymbroeck M4, Albinati NK5, Culos-Reed SN5
Affiliation:
1Department of Social Sciences and Health Policy, Division of Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
2Department of Medical Social Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois.
3Department of Palliative, Rehabilitation, and Integrative Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas.
4School of Health Research, College of Behavioral, Social, and Health Sciences, Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina.
5Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Conference/Journal: Cancer.
Date published: 2019 Apr 1
Other:
Special Notes: doi: 10.1002/cncr.31979. [Epub ahead of print] , Word Count: 234
Because yoga is increasingly recognized as a complementary approach to cancer symptom management, patients/survivors and providers need to understand its potential benefits and limitations both during and after treatment. The authors reviewed randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of yoga conducted at these points in the cancer continuum (N = 29; n = 13 during treatment, n = 12 post-treatment, and n = 4 with mixed samples). Findings both during and after treatment demonstrated the efficacy of yoga to improve overall quality of life (QOL), with improvement in subdomains of QOL varying across studies. Fatigue was the most commonly measured outcome, and most RCTs conducted during or after cancer treatment reported improvements in fatigue. Results also suggested that yoga can improve stress/distress during treatment and post-treatment disturbances in sleep and cognition. Several RCTs provided evidence that yoga may improve biomarkers of stress, inflammation, and immune function. Outcomes with limited or mixed findings (eg, anxiety, depression, pain, cancer-specific symptoms, such as lymphedema) and positive psychological outcomes (such as benefit-finding and life satisfaction) warrant further study. Important future directions for yoga research in oncology include: enrolling participants with cancer types other than breast, standardizing self-report assessments, increasing the use of active control groups and objective measures, and addressing the heterogeneity of yoga interventions, which vary in type, key components (movement, meditation, breathing), dose, and delivery mode.
© 2019 American Cancer Society.
KEYWORDS: anxiety; cancer; depression; fatigue; mind-body; quality of life; sleep; symptoms; yoga
PMID: 30933317 DOI: 10.1002/cncr.31979
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