In 1999 a group of health care providers from the Integrative Medicine Program at Children's Hospitals & Clinics in Minneapolis/St. Paul met to discuss ideas for a research project that would both advance the science of complementary and alternative therapies for children and focus on childhood cancer. Children undergoing cancer therapy receive the best treatment modern medicine has to offer, but must endure side-effects such as pain, anxiety, fatigue and nausea. This is a stressful and anxious time. Parents must juggle all the normal elements of family life with clinic appointments, chemotherapy infusions, and hospitalization. The group thought that blending techniques from complementary and alternative medicine might reduce symptoms and improve the ability of the child and the family to cope. It was our hope that with research of this nature we would discover ways in which to make this time easier for children and families.

As we looked at the various CAM modalities, massage stood out as a technique that would be soothing and calming, and would be likely to have an impact on the key symptoms of pain, anxiety and fatigue, all of which are related to stress. Massage was a therapy that could be done on the parent as well as the child. Addressing both the parents’ and child’s needs was very important considering the family centered focus of our institution. Because anxiety in the parent can be contagious to the child, the child’s anxiety might be reduced both directly through the child’s massage and indirectly through the parent receiving massage.

The research project Massage and Childhood Cancer developed from this discussion. It was generously funded by Massage Therapy Foundation and we received secondary funds from a local foundation.

We are doing this study with children ages 1 –18 years (our pilot study showed that infants had too much anxiety receiving massage by a stranger). It consists of providing seated chair massage to a parent and full body massage to the child once a week for four weeks. Each parent/child dyad also has a 4-week control period, which is 4 weekly sessions of quiet play (reading, video games, etc). We are measuring anxiety in the child and parent, as well as pain, nausea, vital signs and fatigue in the child. Additionally we are measuring cortisol in the child. Cortisol is a hormone that rises with stress. We are collecting saliva to get this sample and the children chew gum or kool-aid crystals and then spit in a tube. Many of them find this to be a “pretty silly” part of the study and we have had many laughs about their ability to spit well!

Both the parents and the children involved in the study have found it very beneficial. One dad exclaimed, “I can’t believe how relaxing my body has relaxed my mind”. And the children and adolescents have uniformly said they feel more relaxed and comfortable after the massage. The massage therapists on the study have found this to be very rewarding work. They report how good they feel when they have worked with a child who is anxious or in pain and see how much better they are after the massage session. They also tell us what challenging work this is as they see patients both in the clinic and in the hospital, work around busy schedules and alter their techniques depending on the age of the child and their physical state. Working with children with a life threatening illness also can be emotionally draining. It is equally important to recognize the stress on the therapist and to share the experience with others. We are now in the final stages of the study. We plan to end enrollment later this summer and analyze our data at the end of the year. We hope to have information ready for publication next spring. So stay tuned, more to come.