Effects of dance/movement therapy on the disease symptoms in breast cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy

Abstract

Background: Breast cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy often suffer from various disease symptoms such as fatigue, pain, and sleep disturbance. These symptoms have been shown to be detrimental to their daily functioning and illness prognosis. The present study aimed to examine the effects of dance/movement therapy as an integrated therapeutic intervention on the disease symptoms in breast cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy. Methods: This randomized control trial recruited 139 breast cancer patients (mean age = 48.8 years, SD = 8.2) from cancer support centers and randomized them into intervention group (N = 69) or standard care control group (N = 70). The intervention program composed of six 90-minute dance/movement therapy sessions over 3 weeks and integrated physical, psychotherapeutic, and humanistic components. Participants filled in the Brief Fatigue and Pain Inventories and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index at baseline and 3-week follow-up. Latent growth modeling was used to assess the intervention effects on fatigue severity, pain severity, and sleep disturbance. Results: Participants in the two groups did not significantly differ on demographics (p = .18 - .88) and baseline status of the outcome variables (p = .16 - .77). There was a significant intervention effect on pain severity (group x time effect = -.72, SE = .36, p < .05). Participants in the control group showed a significant increase in pain severity while those in the intervention group remained stable. No intervention effects were found on fatigue severity (group x time effect = -.09, SE = .33, p = .78) and sleep disturbance (group x time effect = -.50, SE = .45, p = .27). Discussions: The results suggest that dance/movement psychotherapy may have therapeutic effects in reducing the pain severity of breast cancer patients receiving radiotherapy. Acknowledgement: This study was supported by the Research Grants Council General Research Fund (HKU745110H).