Lee, S.H., Kim, J.Y., Yeo, S., Kim, S.H., & Lim, S. (2015). Meta-analysis of massage therapy on cancer pain. Integrative Cancer Therapies, 14, 297–304.
DOI Link
Purpose
STUDY PURPOSE: To investigate the effects of massage therapy on cancer pain
TYPE OF STUDY: Meta-analysis and systematic review
Search Strategy
Literature Evaluated
Sample Characteristics
- FINAL NUMBER STUDIES INCLUDED = 12
- TOTAL PATIENTS INCLUDED IN REVIEW = 559
- SAMPLE RANGE ACROSS STUDIES: Not evaluable
- KEY SAMPLE CHARACTERISTICS: Varied types of cancer and cancer treatments
Phase of Care and Clinical Applications
PHASE OF CARE: Multiple phases of care
APPLICATIONS: Palliative care
Results
Massage was associated with lower pain (SMD = –1.25, p = 0.0001). Subgroup analysis according to type of intervention, massage, aromatherapy massage, or foot reflexology showed positive effect of each type, though few studies in each subgroup existed. PEDro scores indicated that only three studies were low quality, and the rest were high quality; however, risk of bias evaluation varied widely and showed that most studies had moderate to high risk of bias. Effects of massage were more positive in those studies with higher risk of bias.
Conclusions
Findings show that massage therapy has positive benefits for cancer-related pain.
Limitations
- High heterogeneity
- Sample sizes within studies werenot provided
- Given total patients across 12 studies, some of these must have been small.
- No differentiation between acute or chronic pain
Nursing Implications
Massage therapy is effective in reducing pain among patients with cancer. This low-risk intervention can be helpful in pain management.