Study shows meditation, yoga helpful for breast cancer patients

Mindfulness therapies help survivors cope with stress and anxiety that often follows treatment

Meditation and gentle yoga have been proven to be more effective than group therapy in helping breast cancer survivors cope with the stress and anxiety that often follows treatment, according to a recent study from cancer researchers in Alberta and B.C.

The study, the largest trial of its kind, followed 271 breast cancer survivors in Alberta and B.C.

Findings show participants who used ‘mindfulness-based’ therapy, which includes meditation and yoga, were more likely than group therapy participants to develop positive coping strategies, such as acceptance, and less likely to use unhelpful strategies, such as worry and avoidance.

“More women than ever before are surviving their active treatments for breast cancer but continue to have high levels of stress resulting from their illness,” says Linda Carlson, a clinical psychologist with CancerControl Alberta at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary, a professor in the Department of Oncology at the University of Calgary, and the study’s lead author. Read more here.

Carlson LE, Doll R, Stephen J, Faris P, Tamagawa R, Drysdale E, Speca M. Randomized Controlled Trial of Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery Versus Supportive Expressive Group Therapy for Distressed Survivors of Breast Cancer (MINDSET). JCO Sep 1, 2013:3119-3126; published online on August 5, 2013;