Practice-Changing Initiatives Benefit the Medical Team, Patients

Press/Media

Description

An archive of the World Conference on Lung Cancer Singapore 2020 (January 28-31 January 2021) published on website of International Association for The Study of Lung Cancer (https://www.iaslc.org/iaslc-news/ilcn/practice-changing-initiatives-benefit-medical-team-patients).

Subject

Qigong and Symptom Control

Period26 Jan 2021

Media contributions

1

Media contributions

  • TitlePractice-Changing Initiatives Benefit the Medical Team, Patients
    Degree of recognitionInternational
    Media name/outletTHE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF LUNG CANCER
    Media typeWeb
    Country/TerritoryUnited States
    Date26/01/21
    DescriptionQigong and Symptom Control

    Complementary therapies are used alongside traditional cancer therapies to mitigate physical or emotional symptoms.

    Shirley Siu Yin Ching, PhD, RN, of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, delivered the results of a study combining Qigong, a form of exercise incorporating focused breathing and gentle movement, coupled with a meditation practice.

    In a systematic review of 22 trials of Qigong, Dr. Ching concluded that this practice improved physical, mental well-being as well as quality of life in patients with various cancers, and she together with Prof. Molassiotis and Dr. Vu developed a study to see whether a cluster of the three most distressing lung cancer symptoms¬—dyspnea, fatigue, and anxiety—can be improved simultaneously.

    The study recruited 156 patients with invasive lung cancer (mean age 57 years) from Vietnam who had completed chemotherapy or radiotherapy for at least 4 weeks.

    The patients were divided into two groups:
    The intervention group participated in 90-minute supervised sessions of Qigong twice per week for the first 2 weeks and then were instructed to practice at home for 30-minute daily 5 times per week with DVD-led instruction. They were prescribed an additional 6-week follow-up practice (unsupervised).
    The waitlist control group was given the usual care with briefings on lung cancer care and a 10-minute meeting with a registered nurse.

    The study demonstrated that the patients in the Qigong group reported a trend of improvement in the symptom cluster from baseline to 6 weeks (p = 0.002) and continued until 12 weeks (p = 0.015), whereas the control group did not experience a significant improvement. For fatigue and anxiety, the Qigong group showed a trend in improvement, and for dyspnea, there was a significant improvement over the control group. The Qigong group also had a significant improvement on the cough as well as self-reported quality of life.

    Although the study did not support the hypothesis of alleviating dyspnea, fatigue, and anxiety as a cluster, it did improve dyspnea and cough significantly.

    “In future studies, the cluster of symptoms that include dyspnea and cough should be considered as the key outcomes for Qigong intervention with breathing exercises,” Dr. Ching said, and the skill learned through the mindfulness-led breathing exercises should be investigated further.
    Producer/AuthorTHE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF LUNG CANCER
    URLhttps://www.iaslc.org/iaslc-news/ilcn/practice-changing-initiatives-benefit-medical-team-patients
    PersonsSiu Yin Ching, Alexandros Molasiotis, Dau Van Vu

Keywords

  • Qigong
  • Symptom Control