Abstract
Objective: The aim of this preliminary study was to assess whether traditional Japanese massage therapy confers benefits to body and mind not only in healthy women but also cancer survivors.
Design: A case control study
Settings/Location: Tsukuba University of Technology, Ibaraki, Japan
Subjects: Five women who underwent surgery for uterine cervical or endometrial cancer (stage 1a1-2a; cancer survivors group) and five healthy women of the same generation (healthy women group) were recruited. All had chronic muscle stiffness of the neck and shoulder and wanted to receive massage therapy.
Interventions: All participants received traditional Japanese massage therapy consisting of eight 40-min massage sessions over 4 weeks.
Outcome Measures: Visual analogue scale (VAS) to assess the severity of the subjective symptom of muscle stiffness in the neck and shoulder; salivary cortisol, secretory immunoglobulin A (s-IgA), and chromogranin A (CgA) from saliva; state anxiety, trait anxiety, and depression.
Results: Regarding immediate changes in variables by therapy, there were significant differences between the cancer survivors group and the healthy women group in VAS, s-IgA, and CgA. VAS, salivary cortisol, and state anxiety scores decreased, and s-IgA and CgA increased in both groups. After the four weeks of sessions, there were significant differences between the cancer survivors group and the healthy women group in VAS, CgA, and depression. VAS, trait anxiety, and depression scores decreased in both groups.
Conclusions: These results imply that traditional Japanese massage therapy may confer physical and psychological benefits to cancer survivors as well as to healthy women. Further studies with a larger sample size are needed.
