Mind-body intervention program improves quality of life for people with cancer
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A mind-body intervention program had positive effects on quality of life for people with cancer, according to a pilot study.
Results showed sustained benefits that persisted at least 6 months after intervention.
Researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and other institutions evaluated the Radical Remission Multimodal Intervention (RRMI).
Kelly A. Turner, PhD the New York Times bestselling author of Radical Remission — developed RRMI after assessing key lifestyle factors shared by more than 1,500 cases of cancer survivors who experienced spontaneous regression of their disease.
RRMI workshops offer instruction on these lifestyle factors to individuals with cancer and supply them with tools for navigating their cancer recovery.
The investigators collected data from 200 adults with various cancer types who attended RRMI workshops. Study participants completed online questionnaires at baseline, as well as at 1 month and 6 months after intervention.
Quality of life as measured by the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being Scale (FACIT-Sp) before and after the intervention served as the study’s primary outcome.
In final mixed-effects model analyses, researchers found significant increases in FACIT-Sp score at 1 month (9.5 points; 95% CI, 6.2-12.8) and 6 months (9.7 points; 95% CI, 6.4-13) compared with baseline. These reflected a 7.7% improvement at 1 month and a 10.8% improvement at 6 months.
“I developed the Radical Remission workshop after my first book, Radical Remission, was published,” Turner told Healio. “I was asked to speak about the book at a few places and, at one of those talks, the organizer asked if I would teach the 10 key healing factors in a workshop setting. Because all of the factors practiced by Radical Remission survivors are safe and healthy lifestyle changes that anyone can make — whether they are trying to manage or prevent cancer — I decided to take the challenge.”
Healio spoke with Turner and study lead author Junaidah B. Barnett, MCH(N), PhD, of the department of nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and of Health and Healing Research Education and Service, about the success of the RRMI workshops in their study population and their plans for future studies.
Healio: How did this intervention come about?
Turner: I developed a workshop that can be taught either over 2 days or spread out over 6 to 8 weeks. Today, our 125-plus Certified Radical Remission Workshop Instructors from around the globe offer the Radical Remission workshop in person, via livestream, and via a self-paced online course. The results of the Harvard pilot study showed that both formats — in-person and self-paced/online — boost one’s quality of life for at least 6 months. This is great news for people who can’t attend the workshop at a specific time.
Healio: What does it entail?
Turner: The Radical Remission workshop involves learning about 10 key healing factors my research has shown are common among Radical Remission cancer survivors. The workshop instructor spends about 1 hour covering each of the factors:
- radically changing your diet;
- taking herbs and supplements, under the guidance of a health professional;
- exercising or moving your body;
- increasing positive emotions;
- releasing suppressed emotions;
- following your intuition;
- deepening your spiritual connection, whatever that may be;
- increasing social support;
- finding strong reasons for living; and
- empowering yourself.
Healio: Did the program’s success surprise you?
Barnett: No, because thousands of patients have told Dr. Turner that the quality of their lives improved. We wanted to show that in a more rigorous way using research techniques. We found that quality of life improved following the intervention, controlling for factors such as gender, ethnicity, age and degree of obesity.
Interestingly, many of the subscores of the overall quality-of-life score, including emotional well-being, meaning, peace and faith, were improved. Also, we found no difference in quality of life whether the intervention was conducted in person or online.
Additionally, irrespective of training type, higher adherence score at 6 months appeared associated with a larger improvement in quality-of-life score.
Our main study findings are encouraging but cannot be conclusive because we were not able to control for cancer types and stage of disease. The data can be used to design future studies.
We know that improved quality of life is associated with decreased treatment side effects, improved health — such as increased energy — and even increased survival. We hope that the RRMI intervention might eventually be shown to help with treatment side effects, improved overall well-being and longer survival.
What are the potential implications for long-term clinical practice?
Barnett: Future studies conducted over a longer period of time, such as over 1 or more years, will be needed to answer this question. We hope to conduct a randomized controlled trial in which participants will be assigned by chance into a group receiving the RRMI and another not receiving the RRMI. We will measure quality of life, as well as other factors such as tumor size and cancer and immune biomarkers.
Turner: We would like to expand the workshops into a Radical Remission 2.0, which would be for people who have completed the first workshop. This would take them a little bit deeper into things they can do around those 10 lifestyle changes. I also would like to focus on expanding the study, which would hopefully mean that Dr. Barnett and the other researchers would have funding to do a randomized clinical trial.
Healio: Is this something other institutions could replicate?
Barnett: Yes, we welcome other institutions providing RRMI and replicating and expanding our results. We believe that the intervention has the potential to improve survival and empower patients with cancer to participate in their care.
Turner: Absolutely. I could train people at hospitals to teach this workshop, similar to how mindfulness-based stress reduction workshops are taught all over the country.
References:
- Barnett JB, et al. Integre Cancer Ther. 2024; doi:10.1177/15347354241293197.
- Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Study shows mind-body intervention improves cancer patients’ quality of life (press release). Available at: https://www.thewellnews.com/health/study-shows-mind-body-intervention-improves-cancer-patients-quality-of-life. Published Nov. 6, 2024. Access Nov. 261, 2024.
For more information:
Junaidah Barnett can be reached at jbarnett@hhres.org.
Kelly A. Turner, PhD, can be reached at kelly@radicalremission.com.
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