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Patient-reported benefits of massage therapy as treatment for chemotherapy-related pain.

192 Background: Massage Therapy (MT) has been suggested to provide symptom relief of chemotherapy related side effects. Its impact on pain improvement, prevention, and overall quality of life (QoL) is characterized in this study and 2 different pain scales are being compared.


METHODS
Patients who were on active chemotherapy and agreed to receive at least one MT session over a 10-week period were included. Wong-Baker Pain scale (WBPS) and Numerical Pain Scale (NPS) were assessed pre and post every session.


RESULTS
62 pts were included. 25 pts were on analgesics (Opiates 64%, Gabapentin 24%, NSAIDs 12%). 34/62 pts had no complaints of pain on enrollment and only 9% (3/34) developed pain as per WBPS on subsequent visits. In 27/28 pts (97%) who had pain initially according to WBPS (0-4 scale), improvement was reported from X = 1.25 (5±5, M = 0, SD 2.31) to X = 0.32 after one MT session (4±4, M = 0, SD 1.16) (p < 0.05). 25/28 pts (89%) had maintained improvement from 1st to 2nd session with an average of 50%. 11% (3/28) reported worsening of pain symptoms with an X increase average of 2.66 (3±1, M = 2). NPS was positive for 37 patients on initial visit. NPS revealed a similar trend with pre-massage X of pain from 2.76 (5±5, M = 2, SD 2.87) to 1.18 (4±4, M = 0, SD 2.01) after 1st session (39.5% improvement) (p < 0.05). 18/25 (72%) saw a decrease in pain level per NPS (X = 2.27) between each session, whereas 28% noted worsening of pain by the end of their participation.


CONCLUSIONS
MT is a high-value, low-risk intervention for reducing cancer pain and cancer treatment-related pain. MT could be used to address patients' need for emotional and physical human connection at a time when their quality of life is fragile. MT may offer pain prophylaxis when provided in a cumulative manner. NPS appears to be more sensitive than WBPS for pain screening in oncologic patients. Further studies are necessary to confirm the suggested findings of massage therapy for pain prevention and treatment.