Effects of Yoga on Quality of Life during Breast Cancer

DESCRIPTION: (provided by applicant) Breast cancer and its treatment are often associated with great psychological, physical and functional impairment. Recent research indicates that newly diagnosed cancer patients of all cultural backgrounds are seeking out increased behavioral/complementary medicine modalities to help them cope with cancer and its treatment. Yoga is one such practice that is becoming increasingly popular among cancer support organizations and cancer patients. While Yoga has been empirically shown to provide numerous physical and psychological benefits in both healthy and chronically ill individuals, there has been only one published study to date of Yoga's effects on quality of life (QOL) in cancer patients. The overall aim of this pilot study is to examine the effect of a Yoga intervention to improve QOL among breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy within an urban, multi-ethnic cancer center. This clinical trial will utilize a stratified (by type of chemotherapy)-randomized, prospective, single-blinded design. Breast cancer patients (n=130) will be randomly assigned (before the initiation of chemotherapy) to either a Yoga program (n=65), or a Wait List Control group (n=65; Standard Care), and followed for a 3-month period. Measures will be obtained at three time points: baseline (T1) (prior to chemotherapy and group assignment), at one month (T2); and at three months (T3), by blinded interviewers using standardized QOL measurements (e.g., Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy) and clinician ratings. Objective health measures will include adverse medical events and treatment compliance. Multivariate analyses will be used to examine the hypothesis that a Yoga program will improve upon overall QOL by at least 15 percent (based on a .25 effect size) in comparison to Standard Care.