Massage Relieves Nausea in Women with Breast Cancer Who Are Undergoing Chemotherapy

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Abstract
The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of massage on nausea, anxiety, and depression in patients with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy. This work was a single-center, prospective, randomized, controlled trial. This study was conducted in an oncology clinic, in a hospital in southwestern Sweden. Thirty-nine (39) women (mean age = 51.8) with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy were enrolled. The patients were randomly assigned to a massage therapy group (20 minutes of massage on five occasions) or a control group (five 20-minute visits). All patients recorded nausea and anxiety on the Visual Analogue Scale before and after each intervention. They also completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Massage treatment significantly reduced nausea compared with control treatment (p = 0.025) when improvement was measured as a percentage of the five treatment periods. Differences in anxiety and depression between the two treatment regimes could not be statistically demonstrated. This study complements previous studies on the effect of massage and supports the conclusion that massage reduces nausea in these patients.