Newsroom
Stress Management Helps Prostate Cancer Patients
Cancer Newsline - 06/01/09
Relaxation May Improve Mood, Quality of Life
Brief stress-management sessions before and immediately after radical prostatectomy (removal of the prostate and surrounding tissue) to treat early-stage prostate cancer had short- and long-term benefits in a recent study.
The study, published by M. D. Anderson researchers in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, is the first to examine the benefits of stress reduction sessions before prostate cancer surgery.
Significance of study
Most stress-reduction interventions for cancer patients take place after surgery, says Lorenzo Cohen, Ph.D., the study’s senior author. Cohen is a professor in M. D. Anderson’s departments of Behavioral Science and General Oncology and director of the Integrative Medicine Program.
"From other areas of research, we know that going into a surgical setting overly stressed may increase a patient's recovery time,” he says. “With this study, we wanted to intervene in the pre- and post-surgical setting and try to help relieve stress and minimize mood disturbance, such as depression, anxiety and distress, both in the short- and long-terms."
Research methods
For the study, 159 men with early-stage prostate cancer who were scheduled for radical prostatectomies were divided into three groups.
Group 1: Men in this group received:
- Two 60- to 90-minute sessions of pre-surgical stress counseling
- Brief sessions the morning of and 48 hours after surgery
Patients were shown how to handle negative thoughts and emotions that might occur before and after surgery. They met with a clinical psychologist who taught them behavioral techniques that included:
- Diaphragmatic breathing
- Relaxation techniques using guided imagery
- Imaginal (mental images of) walk-through of the day of surgery
- Cognitive therapy to set realistic expectations and counter negative thoughts
Group 2: Men in this group received:
- Two 60- to 90-minute supportive attention sessions
- Brief sessions the morning of and 48 hours after surgery
Patients met with the same psychologist as Group 1, but their sessions were more general and centered on open discussions. They did not learn behavioral techniques.
Group 3: This group received standard care with no counseling sessions
Patients were evaluated six times:
- Up to one month before surgery
- One week before surgery
- The morning of surgery
- Six weeks after surgery
- Six months after surgery
- 12 months after surgery
Primary Results
Men in Group 1 had the lowest levels of mood disturbance one week before surgery and the morning of surgery. Patients with no therapy exhibited the highest level of mood disturbance.
After surgery, men in Group 1 had:
- Better long-term quality of life
- Higher-level physical functioning
What’s next?
Cohen and his team are analyzing immune function and stress hormone levels from blood samples collected from the study participants.
"We're trying to understand what is potentially associated with a patient's long-term quality of life and what happened in the stress management group that resulted in a much better quality of life in the year post-surgery," he says.
Adapted by Bayan Raji from an M. D. Anderson news release.