466MO - Effectiveness of yoga on pain and spiritual well-being in patients with advanced cancer: A single-arm interventional study in India

Background

Yoga is an effective complementary approach in managing cancer-related symptoms. However, few studies are available on yoga in patients with advanced cancer. The aim of our study was to examine the effectiveness of yoga in improving pain and spiritual wellbeing in patients with advanced cancer admitted in the respite palliative care [RPC] settings in a tertiary cancer center in India.

Methods

A single arm study was conducted in RPC after receiving ethics committee approval. In this study, we included adult advanced cancer inpatients admitted for minimum 7 days at RPC with performance status <4 on ECOG. Patients who could understand regional languages, provide informed consent, and had no prior yoga training or practice were recruited. They participated in individual yoga sessions [Asana, Pranayama, and Mudra] with a certified trainer for a minimum of 5 days. We measured pain by Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS) and spiritual wellbeing by the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy – Spiritual Well-Being 12 (FACIT-SP) at days 0, 7 and 30, respectively. Statistical analysis was done using IBM SPSS v25 for descriptive measures and appropriate test to measure correlation between pain and spirituality between at days 0, 7 and 30.

Results

Of 100 patients recruited, 52 were women and 55 on best supportive care only, the mean age being 49 (±9.9) yrs. The most frequent cancer diagnoses were gynecological (n=23), gastrointestinal (n=23) and head neck (n=23). The median scores at day 0, 7 and 15 were 5, 3 and 3 for pain and 33.7, 32.8 and 33.3 for total spirituality wellbeing. We found significant negative correlation between pain and total FACIT-Sp score (r = -0.35, p<0.001), suggesting that as pain scores decreased, overall spiritual well-being improved on day 7. However, day 0 and day 30, pain and spiritual well-being scores did not significantly correlate.

Conclusions

These results underscore the importance of addressing both physical and spiritual needs in advanced cancer patients in RPC. Yoga therapy is a promising complimentary therapy in effective pain management and indicated further scope of research on this topic.

Clinical trial identification

CTRI/2021/11/037871.

Editorial acknowledgement

Legal entity responsible for the study

Department of Palliative Medicine, TMH.

Funding

Has not received any funding.

Disclosure

All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.