Study hails massage for cancer patients

By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published September 16, 2008 at 4:13 p.m.
Updated September 17, 2008 at 12:13 a.m.

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Terminal cancer patients can get some pleasant relief from massage, but mere touch therapy doesn't do much for them, a study says.

The University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine tried the different therapies with 380 cancer hospice patients.

Lead investigator Dr. Jean Kutner, an expert in end-of-life care, said several different types of massage brought significant relief to the patients.

Stroking, squeezing, kneading and finger-probing pressure all assuaged the pain that the terminal cancer patients were feeling - at least for a short while.

The study didn't find any long-term relief from the massages, but neither did it find that the massages did any harm.

In fact, patients getting the massages over a three-week period seemed to stay about even physically, while similar terminal patients not in the study grew progressively worse.

The study, in the current issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, could help dispel the notion that terminally ill patients can't withstand the rigors of massage, Kutner said.

Patients in her study reported feeling better and being in better moods, and showed more improvements in heart and respiration rates than those treated with simple touch.

The simple touch therapy seemed to help the patients a little bit.

"People in a hospice situation don't have the day-to-day touch most of us do," she said. "This study is a good reminder that there are some benefits to that kind of physical contact."

scanlon@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2897

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