Music Listening in Stem Cell Transplantation and Acute Myeloid Leukemia: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Music listening (ML) has been shown to have a beneficial effect on patients with cancer. However, novel intervention approaches are needed.

We aimed to determine whether ML based on the iso-principle, conducted using a mobile application (GloMus), improves symptom burden, quality of life (QoL), anxiety, and depression in patients undergoing stem cell transplantation (SCT) and intensive induction chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

In this randomized controlled clinical trial, we assigned 71 patients to the ML or standard care (SC) groups, stratified by the reason for admission (AML, allogeneic-SCT, or inpatient/outpatient autologous-SCT). Upon admission, participants in the ML groups were invited to undergo daily ML sessions designed to change negative moods into positive ones (iso-principle). The intervention consisted of listening to pre-recorded classical music ordered by beats per minute and tonality. Symptom burden (Edmonton Symptom Assessment System-Revised) was assessed in the ML groups before and after each session. Anxiety, depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), and QoL (Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Bone Marrow Transplantation/Leukemia) were measured weekly in the ML and SC groups.

Symptom burden in both allogeneic- and inpatient autologous-SCT ML groups reduced after the intervention. In all experimental groups, clinically important improvements were observed after ML sessions. No differences were found between the groups (ML vs. SC) at different weeks of admission regarding anxiety, depression, and QoL.

ML based on our innovative iso-principle strategy, conducted using GloMus, reduced the symptom burden in patients undergoing allogeneic- and inpatient autologous-SCT (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT05696457).