In a Canadian study (MATCH) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Carlson et al investigated the effects of mindfulness and Tai Chi interventions on mood in distressed cancer survivors.
Study Details
In the multisite study, 587 survivors with reported distress, enrolled between 2017 and 2020, were permitted to choose between a Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery intervention (MBCR; 57% of those with a preference) and a Tai Chi/Qigong intervention (TCQ; 43% of those with a preference); the remaining 36% without a preference were randomly assigned to MBCR or TCQ interventions. Patients were also randomly assigned 2:1 to immediate intervention or waitlist control. The primary outcome measure was score on total mood disturbance (TMD) on the Profile of Mood States (POMS) after intervention.
Key Findings
Among all patients, 75% were female and the average age was 60.7 years. Among the 12 cancer types included in the analysis, the most common were breast (40.7%), prostate (11.2%), and gastrointestinal (9.7%) cancers. In total, 50.1% had stage 0 to II disease.
The choice of a specific intervention or undergoing randomization to interventions had no significant effect on outcome. Patients receiving immediate intervention in both the combined preference and randomly assigned MBCR group and TCQ group had greater improvements in TMD scores than the respective waitlist control groups.
The largest improvements on other POM subscales were in tension, anger, and vigor for MBCR, and anger, depression, and vigor for TCQ.
The investigators concluded: “This large, pragmatic trial demonstrated both mindfulness and TCQ interventions improved mood in distressed cancer survivors, whether they chose a program or chose to be randomly assigned.”
Linda E. Carlson, PhD, of the Department of Oncology, University of Calgary, Calgary, is the corresponding author for the Journal of Clinical Oncology article.
Disclosure: The study was supported by a grant from the Lotte and John Hecht Memorial Foundation, Enbridge Research Chair for Psychosocial Oncology (co-funded by the Canadian Cancer Society and the Alberta Cancer Foundation), and others. For full disclosures of all study authors, visit ascopubs.org.
