Effect of Mindfulness Based Therapy Using Anapana Meditation on Cancer Patients Being Treated With Radical Radiotherapy: A Single Institution Study

Abstract

In India, cancer incidence has significantly increased over the last decade with 1.42 million cases in 2022 and with projected rise of 12.8% by 2025. Cancer diagnosis and treatment is associated with stress and anxiety that can adversely impact the quality of life. Stress has also been shown to affect disease progression and development of metastasis. Recently, there has been much interest in alternative methods to improve quality of life in cancer patients. Mindfulness, which has its roots in Buddhist meditation techniques, has been shown to be successful in lowering pain and other symptoms, by enhancing patient's coping mechanisms. Studies have also shown higher levels of mindfulness is associated with improved quality of life. There are several studies testing mindfulness in cancer patients in western literature but they have not included low socioeconomic groups and most are conducted in breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Ours is a prospective single-arm interventional study conducted in 35 cancer patientsundergoing curative radiotherapy. Patients were subjected toAnapana meditation 30 minutes per day for 15 days. Subjective well-being and Pain scale improvement was assessed by EORTC QLQ C30 questionnaire at baseline and end of Mindfulness Based Intervention (MBI) (Day 15). The mean Global Health Status score was 25.69 before MBI and 22.68 after MBI. Among functional scales, there was an improvement in Physical, Cognitive, and Emotional functioning (p = 0.3751), with Emotional showing maximum improvement by 10 points. Mean scores for Role functioning and Social functioning showed small decrease. Among symptom scales, nausea and vomiting showed improvement with MBI. Fatigue and Pain scores worsened (p = 0.4596). All other symptom scores were static without further decline. These results imply that there is some benefit of MBI in improving perceived symptoms and QoL in patients undergoing RT. Large randomized trials with longer follow up that assess the impact of Mindfulness-based interventions are required to confirm our findings.