Bellingham, Washington, USA

Project Title:

Low-Fee Integrative Massage Therapy for Cancer Patients

Project Description:

The aim of this project is to make massage therapy more accessible to cancer patients, many of whom are unable to work while undergoing treatment. Open Pathways is offering Integrative Massage Therapy to cancer patients using sliding scale fees. The sliding scale makes it possible for cancer patients to receive up to 4 bodywork sessions for as low as half the regular price (or whatever the patient can pay between half and full price).

Through the Karmanos Cancer Institute at McLaren Greater Lansing Hospital in Lansing, Michigan, I have designed a Clinical Trial to determine the effectiveness of targeted massage therapy vs standard relaxation massage therapy on patients who are currently going through chemotherapy. 

The team right now includes a Medical Oncologist, a Social Worker, a Statistician, a Medical Student, and an Oncology Massage Therapist. Additional members may be added as needed. 

Stage 1: A two-armed Clinical Trial including patients actively going through chemotherapy, who are symptomatic. We will be limiting our patient pool to those with breast cancer or digestive tract cancer. We will be screening out anyone with pre-existing neuropathy (such as with diabetes). Approximately 32 people will be in each of the two arms. Group 1 will receive three 20-minute TARGETED massages (hands or feet) per week for four weeks. Group 2 will receive three 20-minute GENERAL RELAXATION massages of the upper body only, omitting hands, per week, for four weeks. Clinical staff will administer pre- and post- massage surveys. They will include standard pain scales, anxiety, depression, stress, and wellbeing. When treatments have been completed, staff will contact patients at various points over six months with surveys. Long-term results have not yet been researched in previous similar trials. 

Stage 2: If Stage 1 yields positive results, we will focus on patients who have completed their chemotherapy but are still symptomatic. Details will be determined after reviewing Stage 1 data. 

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USING MY S4OM GRANT 

My plan is to develop training courses with videos for massage therapists to educate them about CIPN, and provide them with targeted techniques and protocols to integrate neuropathy care into their practice.  

Our Clinical Trial is based on the successes seen at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston (2022) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-23372-w and by Cal Cates in Washington, D.C. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/369388088_

There is good research backing up the idea that massage therapy can significantly decrease symptoms of CIPN. Every massage therapist should know about this and be able to provide this service for their clients. 

These two courses could be given in person (which I plan to do as I develop them), or online. 

I am working with Dr. Richard Deming, and his research team at the Richard Deming Cancer Center.

This research is specifically looking at Mindful Awareness in Body-Oriented Therapy (MABT) to explore its feasibility in cancer treatment.  We are focusing on breast cancer patients and have limited the study to 10 patients who will receive a full 8-week cycle of MABT sessions.  MABT is massage with attention to building body literacy, interoception skills training to reduce avoidant/dissociative coping and to increase effective response to stressors, and mindful body awareness practice. I am planning to use the multidimensional assessment of interoceptive awareness (MAIA) for the measurement tool.   

Should this pilot study prove feasible, I plan to expand further research into a broader cancer study, eventually including caretakers and family members of patients undergoing cancer treatment.