Healing touch in radiation therapy: is the benefit tangible?

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Complementary and Alternative Medicine
• Radiation Therapy

Background:

• Increasing use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) by cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy.
• Prevalence of Mind and Body practices, particularly biofield healers, without established evidence.
• Need to investigate the epidemiology and impact of biofield healers in radiation oncology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To report epidemiologic data on biofield healer consultations among radiotherapy patients.
• To assess the self-reported and objective benefits of biofield healers for cancer patients.
• To evaluate the impact on treatment tolerance, pain, and analgesic consumption.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective study of 806 breast and prostate cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy in 2015.
• Collected data on healer consultation frequency, remuneration, and patient self-evaluations.
• Assessed treatment tolerance (fatigue, pain) using visual analog scales and evaluated analgesic consumption and toxicities (NTCAEv4.0).

Main Results:

• 51.2% of 500 included patients (350 women, 150 men) consulted a biofield healer.
• Most patients had weekly or daily appointments; healers were often voluntary (75.8%).
• Over 80% of patients reported good/very good subjective impact on treatment tolerance, but no objective differences in toxicity or pain were observed.

Conclusions:

• A majority of radiotherapy patients consult biofield healers, reporting perceived subjective benefits.
• No objective amelioration in treatment tolerance or pain was demonstrated in cancer patients.
• Highlights a discrepancy between subjective patient experience and objective clinical outcomes regarding biofield healer use.