Effectiveness of mindfulness based stress reduction program on quality of life of cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy

Background: Worldwide cancer is one of the major causes of illness and death. Cancer patients at all stages of their disease need supportive services. Depression occurs in twenty to fifty percent of cancer patients and quality of life decreases. The study was undertaken with the objective to assess the effectiveness of mindfulness based stress reduction program on quality of life of cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy. Method: A Randomized control trial was undertaken for the patients with head and neck cancer undergoing radiotherapy treatment. For the intervention group with the pre test 7 weekly sessions of mindfulness based stress reduction program along with routine treatment was given and on the 7th week post test was conducted. For the control group pre test was done on the 1st day and post test was on 7th week who received only the routine treatment. Quality of life was assessed in both intervention and control group in pre test and post test. Pre test-post test control group design was adopted and out of total 221 participants, 112 were in the control group and 109 were in the intervention group. Quality of life of the patients was assessed using the standardized questionnaire “European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QLQ-C30.” Result: In the pre test there was no significant difference in the Global health status / QoL and functional scale. After the intervention to the group, the post test depicted significant difference in the Global health status / QoL between the control group and the intervention group with the p value 0.001. In the functional scale, in physical and emotional functioning significant difference was found. In symptom scale for fatigue, nausea and vomiting, insomnia, constipation, and diarrhea significant difference was found between the control group and the intervention group where the p value was <0.05. The overall quality of life scores in all the other areas also were significantly improved in patients of intervention group who received the MBSR intervention compared with those in the control group who received only the routine treatment.