A groundbreaking clinical trial has demonstrated that yoga can significantly reduce emotional distress, anxiety, fatigue, and insomnia in people living with cancer. The study, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago, is the first of its kind to rigorously test the effects of yoga on these common side effects of cancer and its treatment.
Study Details
Researchers recruited 410 cancer survivors in the United States who had not practiced yoga in the previous three months and whose cancer had not spread. The average age of participants was 54, and three-quarters had been diagnosed with breast cancer, the most common cancer worldwide.
Participants were randomly assigned to two groups: 204 received standard survivorship care, which includes maintenance therapy, follow-up visits, and monitoring for side effects. The other 206 received standard care plus a four-week program called Yoga for Cancer Survivors (YOCAS). This program comprised 18 gentle hatha and restorative yoga poses, breathing exercises, and mindfulness techniques.
Yoga Program Structure
The YOCAS program included two 75-minute instructor-led yoga classes per week, plus additional home-based practice of at least 30 minutes weekly. The hatha and restorative yoga focused on slow, gentle movements and still postures using props, integrating breathing and mindfulness throughout.
Results
Assessments using questionnaires measured mood, anxiety, fatigue, and insomnia. Compared to the standard care group, yoga participants experienced significantly less overall mood disturbance (moderate-to-large effect), less anxiety (small-to-medium effect), and less fatigue (medium-to-large effect).
Lead author Yuri Choi, a research assistant professor at the University of Rochester Medical Center, stated: "There is no single gold standard behavioural treatment available to survivors for treating overall mood disturbance, anxiety, fatigue, and insomnia. By demonstrating that YOCAS intervention improves all four of these cancer-related side effects, this trial helps to fill that gap."
Dr. Fumiko Chino, a cancer researcher and ASCO expert in survivorship at MD Anderson Cancer Center, who was not involved in the trial, commented: "This large, randomised study shows that structured yoga may help relieve some of the most consistently reported and hard-to-treat issues in cancer survivorship, leading to decreased insomnia. It's an important advance because it offers survivors a non-pharmaceutical solution for reducing four different side-effects at once."
The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute.
