Healing touch in radiation therapy: is the benefit tangible?

// Jean-Baptiste Guy 1 , Sacha Bard-Reboul 1 , Jane-Chloe Trone 1 , Alexis Vallard 1 , Sophie Espenel 1 , Julien Langrand-Escure 1 , Anis Hamrouni 1 , Majed Ben Mrad 1 , Stephanie Morisson 2 , Patrick Michaud 2 , Nicolas Magne 1 and Chloe Rancoule 1 1 Departement de Radiotherapie, Institut de Cancerologie de la Loire-Lucien Neuwirth, Saint-Priest-en-Jarez, France 2 Departement Interdisciplinaire des Soins de Supports, Institut de Cancerologie de la Loire-Lucien Neuwirth, Saint-Priest-en-Jarez, France Correspondence to: Nicolas Magne, email: nicolas.magne@icloire.fr Keywords: complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), radiation therapy, supportive care, prostate cancer, breast cancer Received: February 03, 2017 Accepted: August 05, 2017 Published: August 30, 2017 ABSTRACT Background: Cancer patients tend to use more and more complementary or alternative medicine concomitantly to radiotherapy. A large part of these patients have recourse to Mind and Body practice, mainly with biofield healers or magnetizers, without any level of evidence. The aim of the present study was to report epidemiologic data on biofield healers in radiation therapy patients, and to assess the possible objective and subjective benefits. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study was conducted in a French cancer institute. All consecutive breast or prostate cancer patients undergoing a curative radiotherapy during 2015 were screened ( n = 806). Healer consultation procedure, frequency, and remuneration were collected. Patient’s self-evaluation of healer’s impact on treatment tolerance was reported. Tolerance (fatigue, pain) was assessed through visual analogic scale (0 to 10). Analgesic consumption was evaluated. Toxicities were described according to NTCAEv4.0. Results: 500 patients were included (350 women and 150 men). A total of 256 patients (51.2%) consulted a healer during their radiation treatment, with a majority of women (58%, p 80% of the patients described a “good” or “very good” impact of the healer on their treatment. Healers were mainly voluntary (75.8%). Regarding the clinical efficacy, no difference was observed in prostate and in breast cancer patients (toxicity, antalgic consumption, pain). Conclusions: This study reveals that the majority of patients treated by radiotherapy consults a healer and reports a benefit on subjective tolerance, without objective tolerance amelioration.