Simple touch techniques 'can reduce breast cancer symptoms'

Though healthcare experts are constantly striving to develop pharmaceuticals capable of alleviating breast cancer pain, researchers have claimed that a simple method of touch therapy may be able to ease sufferers' discomfort.

These findings were recently reported at the sixth International Conference of the Society for Integrative Oncology, where experts from the National Cancer Institute revealed that patients who have complementary therapy in the form of massages and pressure techniques can benefit from reduced pain.

Principal investigator Dr William Collinge, president of Collinge and Associates, told cancer cover holders that a multi-ethnic study involving people with 21 forms of the disease, half of who were breast cancer sufferers, showed that family and friends acting as carers can be particularly helpful in administering this therapy.

"Touch and massage are among the most effective forms of supportive care in cancer, but most patients cannot access professional practitioners of these methods on a regular basis. This study sought to determine whether family caregivers receiving brief home-based instruction could deliver some of the same benefits as professionals. It appears they can," he said.

Dr Collinge added that carers who administered the touch therapy for 20 minutes, three times a week, helped patients to feel much better and he suggested that companionship alone may have been a major factor in this.

The results showed that patients who had received touch therapy had reduced pain levels of between 29 and 44 per cent, and the expert told cancer insurance customers that this may offer hope to the 45,000 women a year who are diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK.

"This has important implications not just for patient wellbeing, but for caregivers as well. Caregivers are at risk of distress themselves - they can feel helpless and frustrated when seeing a loved one suffer," he concluded.

By James McCann

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